BLUES TO FON A FRIEND

Liverpool tired and brought on their subs with an eye to Tuesday.

That’s exactly how it panned out, and I reckon the City scouts watching will have noticed how the Liverpool defence seemed to get a little flustered under pressure at the end here.

Then again, scouting reports are not entirely valid when you have a centre-half making his first start since January – at leftback. I think that Ragnar Klavan did pretty well in those circumstances.

Of more interest to the City scouts was the way Klopp used Georginio Wijnaldum at the base of his midfield in the holding role, because Jordan Henderson is suspended for Tuesday, and Emre Can injured.

I thought Wijnaldum did well. Perhaps he took a few risks that come more naturally to attacking midfielders, but he looks athletic and physical in EVERTON are ready to go Portuguese in the summer as they prepare to axe current boss Sam Allardyce.

Majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri is returning to two managers he targeted following Ronald Koeman’s sacking in October.

His first choice is Shakhtar Donetsk’s Paulo Fonseca, who has impressed in his two years in Ukraine, winning the that position, and that could be a big attribute against City.

It will be fascinating to watch how Pep Guardiola looks to exploit his lack of experience in that position. Everton didn’t have the legs or pace to do that.

Klopp will be delighted his team avoided any sort of war.

That may have made it a pretty passionless affair, but it also meant no more injuries – and that was the biggest result of all for Liverpool! treble of League, Cup and Super Cup, while former Watford boss Marco Silva is his second option.

The autumn enquiry for Fonseca brought a proposal for £15million of compensation, which Everton were not prepared to pay.

They switched to Silva and were met by a similar bill – also rejected. When Silva refused to resign at Watford, making him a free agent, Everton went for former England boss Allardyce. But despite Big Sam having another 12 months to run on a £6m-a-year contract, Everton are ready to pay up and move in a different direction.

Now Moshiri hopes Fonseca will be prepared to leave Shakhtar in the summer and move to Goodison Park.

The signs are good with Fonseca, 45, stating: “All coaches want to go to England — and I’m one.”