This weekend, the two teams that have become the perennial title-contenders in the Premier League in three of the last four seasons will meet to get the 2022/23 Premier League season underway.
Manchester City, Champions of the Premier League will take on FA Cup Winners Liverpool FC at the unusual venue of the King Power Stadium in Leicester, with Wembley unavailable for the season opener due to it being the host of the Final of the Women’s European Championships 2022.
With an intriguing off-season behind both teams, which has seen both Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp oversee a number of changes to their playing personnel with some formerly key first team stars moving on, and fresh new faces being brought in, it is going to be interesting to see how these new players fit in to the existing patterns for both teams.
And additionally, the game may well afford English football fans a chance to have a look at two of the brightest new attackers to grace the Premier League in Manchester City’s Erling Haaland and Liverpool’s Darwin Nunez.
You can bet on the outcome of the game, as well as a myriad of other markets, at bet365 Sport right now, with more markets set to be made available in the run up to the game, plus an extensive In Play betting service once the action gets underway on Saturday evening.
Community Shield Preview
This weekend’s game takes place at 5pm UK Time on Saturday 30th July, a little earlier than usual in the calendar due to the 2022 FIFA World Cup taking place from November to late December later in the year.
Craig Pawson will be the referee of the game, with ITV showing the game live on terrestrial television.
Manchester City have won the Charity Shield outright on six occasions, never sharing the trophy, while Liverpool have won the trophy 15 times in total, 10 of which they won outright and the other five times they shared the trophy with their opponent.
Both teams have lost their last appearance in the game, City losing 1-0 to Leicester last year, while Liverpool were beaten by Arsenal on penalties the year before.
The year before that in 2018, the two teams meeting on Saturday also met at Wembley for that year;s Community Shield and after a 1-1 draw, it was City who claimed the trophy on penalties.
On Saturday, both teams will be able to make up to six substitutions during the game and if the match finishes in a draw at 90 minutes, then the game will go straight to a penalty shootout to decide who is the winner.
The Teams – Manchester City
It has been a busy off-season for Pep Guardiola and his team, with a significant number of players leaving the club and a couple of key signings coming in to bolster the team in positions of need.
After missing out on Harry Kane last year, City moved to snap up their new number 9 in the shape of former Dortmund star Erling Haaland. The hugely talented Norwegian has an immense goalscoring record and he will certainly be one of the stars every fan will want to see in the new season, although not necessarily against their own team.
And with Fernandinho leaving the club to move back to Brazil, City also spent ÂŁ50m on Leeds and England midfield anchorman Kalvin Phillips, who gives City an alternative to, or a partner for, Rodri in that key central midfield holding role.
However, a number of star names have also moved on. Gabriel Jesus and Olexander Zinchenko have both moved to Arsenal, with Raheem Sterling also moving down to London but this time to sign with Chelsea.
A number of fringe players have moved on, with Gavin Buzunu and Romeo Lavia both joining Southampton, Ko Itakura joining Borussia Moenchengladbach, Pedro Porro joining Sporting Lisbon and a number of other fringe players have secured loan moves to lower league teams.
This now leaves City’s first team squad looking like this:
Manchester City Full Squad
Manager
- Pep Guardiola
Goalkeepers
- Ederson (G)
- Stefan Ortega (G)
Defenders
- Kyle Walker (DRC)
- Ruben Dias (DC)
- John Stones (DC)
- Nathan Ake (DRC)
- Joan Cancelo (DL)
- Aymeric Laporte (DC)
Midfielders
- Kalvin Phillips (DMC)
- Ilkay Gundogan (MC)
- Jack Grealish (AMC)
- Rodrigo (DMC)
- Kevin De Bruyne (AMC)
- Bernardo Silva (AMLC)
- Phil Foden (AMRC)
- Cole Palmer (MC)
Attackers
- Erling Haaland (AC)
- Julian Alvarez (AC)
- Riyad Mahrez (AMLC)
Potential Best Man City XI – (4-3-3) – Ederson, Walker, Cancelo, Dias, Laporte, Rodri, De Bruyne, Silva, Foden, Mahrez, Haaland
For me, this is City’s strongest team in terms of how the team want to play, but I feel for tough games, Guardiola may elect to drop either Foden or Mahrez to the bench, push De Bruyne further forward and play Phillips in midfield alongside Rodri for extra defensive protection for the defence.
Let’s now turn our attention to the team that they will face this coming weekend.
The Teams – Liverpool
Like City, Liverpool have tweaked their squad rather than making wholesale changes across the board and the biggest change is also in the same position as at City, centre forward where the Reds have snapped up the ex-Benfica striker Darwin Nunez.
Nunez will likely form the spearhead of a new look Liverpool attack which now includes Luis Diaz as the first-choice winger and Mo Salah as the other first choice wide man.
Despite spending over £80m on the three new players, Liverpool’s net spend this summer is just £9m, with a number of players on the move, most notably Sadio Mane (who joined Bayern Munich), Divock Origi (AC Milan), Takumi Minamino (AS Monaco) and Neco Williams (Nottingham Forest).
The rest of the Liverpool squad looks settled and now has a youthful look with the addition of Ramsey and Carvalho, both of whom should feature regularly this season, as should Harvey Elliott and Curtis Jones as the Reds new look squad takes shape.
Liverpool Full Squad
Manager
- Jurgen Klopp
Goalkeepers
- Alisson Becker (G)
- Caoimhin Kelleher (G)
- Adrian (G)
Defenders
- Trent Alexander-Arnold (DMR)
- Andy Robertson (DML)
- Konstantinos Tsimikas (DL)
- Joel Matip (DC)
- Virgil van Dijk (DC)
- Joe Gomes (DRLC)
- Ibrahima Konate (DC)
- Calvin Ramsey (DMR)
- Nat Phillips (DC)
Midfielders
- Fabinho (DMC)
- James Milner (DMLRC)
- Jordan Henderson (MC)
- Thiago (MC)
- Naby Keita (AMLC)
- Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (AMRC)
- Curtis Jones (MC)
- Harvey Elliott (AMLC)
- Fabio Carvalho (AMLRC)
- Tyler Morton (DMC)
Attackers
- Roberto Firmino (AMC)
- Mo Salah (AMLC)
- Diogo Jota (AC)
- Luis Diaz (AMRC)
- Darwin Nunez (AC)
Potential Best Liverpool XI – (4-3-3) – Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Robertson, Van Dijk, Konate, Thiago, Henderson, Fabinho, Diaz, Salah, Nunez
There’s no real argument about who are Liverpool’s best in the goalkeeping, defensive and midfield positions. These players have pretty much earned that right over the last couple of years and so the only real change comes in attack where the trusted trio of Firmino, Salah and Mane, is now Diaz, Nunez and Salah, with Firmino and Jota likely to provide plenty of support from the bench.
Our Pick Of The Community Shield Bets At Bet365
So what are the best bets to make at bet365 Sport? Well, we have looked through some of the markets available currently with the betting service and picked the following bets to back:
- Full Time Result – Draw – 23/10
- Correct Score – Manchester City 1-1 Liverpool – 11/2
- Result Both Teams to Score – Draw / Yes – 10/3
Good luck and join me next week for our preview of the forthcoming Premier League season!
Tags: bet365 Sport Community Shield
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