Former Liverpool striker Peter Crouch is supremely confident that his old side will ease to three points against Manchester City on Sunday.
The two Premier League powerhouses go head-to-head at Anfield in a crucial early-season contest, and Crouch believes there is only one likely outcome.
” I don’t expect to see anything other than entertainment at Anfield – and, in all honesty, I don’t see anything other than Liverpool winning,” he wrote in his Daily Mail column.
“It remains to be seen whether Ederson is fit enough to be in goal for City, but I look at the issues they have at centre-back and wonder how Nicolas Otamendi and John Stones will contain Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane.
“Yes, it is the middle of November and there will be 26 games still to go, but I just don’t see Liverpool losing more than twice before the end of the campaign. They have a golden opportunity to put City under intolerable pressure.”
OPINION
Crouch’s optimism is slightly worrying from a Liverpool point of view. Sunday’s game surely isn’t going to be quite as straightforward as he’s suggesting here. City have had injury problems this season, and they’re certainly not as defensively solid as they’ve been in the past without Vincent Kompany and Aymeric Laporte. However, nor are Liverpool the defensive powerhouse they were last season. Jurgen Klopp’s side have been haemorrhaging goals this campaign, and so this should be a really entertaining game, as Crouch says. Liverpool, although they are at home, will probably be relatively happy with a draw. That would keep their current lead at the top of the Premier League table in tact. However, Klopp knows this is a golden opportunity to twist the knife into City early, as Crouch says. It will be tough for City to deal with the Reds’ front three, but equally telling will be Liverpool’s ability to keep Raheem Sterling quiet. Oh, it’s a mouthwatering affair.
