Liverpool v Manchester City
Monday, 11 April 2011.
Anfield, Liverpool
Well it doesn’t really get much bigger than this. With seven league games to go Manchester City head to Anfield to take on a resurgent Liverpool knowing a win will see them reclaim third spot in the table and, more importantly, push them one step closer to Champions League qualification.
Roberto Mancini let loose in City’s last game at home to Sunderland, and a 5-0 thrashing resulted with David Silva and the returning Adam Johnson in fine form. The Mackems put up little resistance and were second best throughout as even the much maligned Mario Balotelli managed to crack a smile.
City have come in for plenty of criticism this season given the endless spending and egos that have come with it, but goalkeeper Joe Hart insists that the squad is close and any bust ups and just part and parcel of having a competitive nature.
“It’s quite amusing to open the paper the next day and see how people have totally misread a situation,” he said.
“Don’t get me wrong – some of them have happened, and we are men training hard and wanting to win, and sometimes you are going to have to smash someone. That’s life. After every single one of the skirmishes, not one has carried on longer than 25 yards and whoever has been involved will have realised there is no need for it and moved on.”
City will be again without both Micah Richards and Jerome Boateng who picked up injuries while on international duty recently, however Argentine full back Pablo Zabaleta could return after being home on compassionate leave.
It will be interesting to see if Mancini keeps the same attacking system that saw Johnson and Silva line up alongside Balotelli, Yaya Toure and Carlos Tevez in an exciting front five.
Meanwhile, Liverpool boss Kenny Dalglish is looking to extend his unbeaten run against City to six games, with the Blues only winning two of their last 37 visits to Anfield.
The Reds will be without captain Steven Gerrard for the remainder of the season while defenders Glen Johnson and Daniel Agger will also be missing tonight. Fabio Aurelio, Jonjo Shelvey and David N’gog come back into contention following their lay offs but lack match practice.
Young midfielder Jay Spearing says he is looking forward to another chance in the centre of the park with Gerrard absent.
“This is one of the biggest games we’ve had so far this season,” he said.
“After last week at West Brom, we were all massively disappointed with the performance and we’ve had to wait a week to get back out there and prove to people we can fight at that level.
“At first it took City a lot of time to gel as a team, but as the season’s gone on they’re getting a lot better. They’re willing to fight for the team. They’re in the semi-finals of the FA Cup, but hopefully on Monday we can start them on a bit of a bad run.”
Key Players:
Liverpool: Luis Suarez
The Uruguayan striker is a fantastic talent, which is proved in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. In some ways it’s sad that it took him so long to gain universal recognition having broken all sorts of goalscoring records while with Ajax in Holland. He has looked very lively since joining Liverpool and if a solid partnership can be formed with Andy Carroll then goals are guaranteed to follow.
Manchester City – Vincent Kompany
Kompany has been, for me, the outstanding centre half in the league this season alongside Nemanja Vidic. Still only 24, the Belgian is a man mountain at centre half and has been consistent right the way through. The Liverpool duo of Suarez and Carroll offer the challenge of very different skill sets so Kompany will have to be on his game to cope. Having said that, I’m struggling to recall a match when he wasn’t.
Prediction:
Liverpool 1 (Suarez)
Manchester City 1 (Lescott)
A Massive thanks to www.mancityfans.net poster Xavi6 for this excellent match preview