Stuttering Reds have work to do
OFF THE BOIL: AND IT DOESN’T GET EASIER AGAINST CITY
Salah a shadow of last season’s prolific scorer.
Liverpool
Liverpool welcome Manchester City to fortress Anfield tomorrow hoping to lay down a marker against the Premier League champions and regain momentum for a tilt at a first title in 29 years.
Both sides can only be separated by City’s superior goal difference at the top of the table having dropped just two points each.
However, Liverpool’s perfect run of seven straight wins to begin the campaign in all competitions has come unstuck in the past week.
Defeat by Chelsea with a muchchanged side in the League Cup was followed by a point against the same opponents at Stamford Bridge thanks to Daniel Sturridge’s brilliant late equaliser.
Yet, more worrying for Jurgen Klopp was an uncharacteristically lacklustre display in losing 1-0 to Napoli in the Champions League on Wednesday.
“You have seen it has been absolutely intense since the last international break with the games we’ve had – Chelsea twice – coming to Napoli, playing PSG and now we have the game on Sunday against Man City,” said Klopp. “We cannot change that, so we have to make sure we are ready.”
City’s visit, therefore, doesn’t come at the best time as Liverpool seek to show they are capable of knocking Pep Guardiola’s recordbreakers off their perch.
Liverpool had the edge on City when they went head-to-head last season, winning three of their four meetings.
City’s hopes of an unbeaten season went up in smoke in a 10-minute period at Anfield in January as Liverpool struck three times en route to winning 4-3.
And they also prolonged Guardiola’s quest to land City’s first-ever Champions League title with a 5-1 aggregate thrashing in the quarterfinals.
However, the task for Klopp is to marry that ability to rise to the big occasion with City’s consistency that racked up 100 Premier League points last season.
Liverpool certainly now have the squad for the long haul. So often outgunned by Abu-Dhabi backed City in the transfer market in recent years, it was the Reds who were the biggest spenders this summer.
Of the new recruits, though, only goalkeeper Alisson Becker has made a big impact as Klopp has preferred to stand by those who got Liverpool to the Champions League final last season.
That run owed much to the firepower of Mohamed Salah’s 44 goals. However, the Egyptian has so far struggled to match those heights in his second season at Anfield.
Liverpool need Salah back in the saddle if they are to stop City puncturing their super start by drawing first blood in the title race. –