Thursday 24 November 2011

Liverpool v Manchester City

This weekend City fans will be looking for what's described in football as 'bounce-backability' when they travel to Anfield on Sunday. Although City's European form has been very hit and miss (mainly miss), they have been powerhouses in the Premiership.

Anfield is always a difficult place to go and pick up points, as City found out last season, however Liverpool's current form at home isn't exactly outstanding at this moment in time. Out of the 6 games played there in the league they've drawn 4 (Sunderland, Manchester United, Norwich and Swansea) and won 2 (Bolton and Wolves). Of course this means they're unbeaten at home so far but they have only picked up 10 of a possible 30 points.

'King' Kenny will be without Steven Gerrard once again but there are now other major injury concerns for him to worry about. Last season Liverpool's fortunes took a dramatic turn for the better when Dalglish took the reigns again, and they managed to reasonably recover what was potentially a disastrous campaign. The purchase of Luis Suarez turned out to be one of the buys of the season however Andy Carroll was possibly the most overpriced lump of uselessness other than Chelsea's splurge of £50m on Torres.  

This season has been somewhat mixed with them currently sat in 6th place having won 50% of their games so far. None of their strikers have made a fantastic start to the season either. Suarez has is their top scorer with only 4 goals to his name. Carroll and Adam share 2nd place with 2 goals each. In fact when it comes to home form, Liverpool have scored fewer than each of the top 8 teams in the league on home turf as well as Norwich and Fulham also hitting the back of the net more often.

In contrast, City's form home and away has been, well, awe inspiring. They've won 5 and drawing 1 away from home as well as scoring 23 goals in the process. 5 of those goals coming against Spurs and 6 against United. The only down side is that City have also conceded 8 goals on their travels, only keeping 1 clean sheet against Blackburn, and although the squad has raised its game when up against bigger teams in the league this will be something Mancini will be astutely aware of and looking to rectify.

Aguero was rested during the week, only making a 9 minute appearance from the subs bench so I would suspect he will be in the starting 11. Which one of Balotelli and Dzeko makes way for the Argentine is any one's guess, although with Mario suffering from some form of illness in the Champions League it could be him. Micah Richards, Gael Clichy, Gareth Barry and Samir Nasri are all also likely to find themselves back in the squad.

So from what I've said so far, it may look like an easy game but that is certainly not the case. I expect a tough game at Anfield and considering we lost there last season I will be willing to take a draw as an improved result.

1 comment:

  1. I think that City will be too strong for Liverpool. If we turn up like we have done for our games this season then I can see City coming away with a 2 nil victory.

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