Analysing Liverpool ahead of Sunday’s Premier League clash | OneFootball

An in-depth look at our opponents this weekend…

Liverpool are the visitors to the Etihad Stadium in a 16:30 (UK) kick-off to end the Premier League weekend.

After the fixture, many of our players will head out on international duty – returning ahead of the 22 November trip to Newcastle United.

Sitting second in the league with 19 points, we go into the match in good form, while our opponents are just a point and a place back from us.

How will it play out at the Etihad?

We take a look at Arne Slot’s Liverpool with the help of Opta data…

Recent form

After winning their first five games of the Premier League season, Liverpool’s fortunes took a nosedive - losing their next four in the league.

They steadied the ship last weekend, beating Aston Villa at Anfield.

That has left them on 18 points after 10 games, third in the league and just one point behind City.

Liverpool will also take some confidence from their midweek performance against Real Madrid.

They were 1-0 winners and could easily have won by more if not for an inspired Thibaut Courtois performance in the Madrid goal.

Preferred formation

Having been recognised for a 4-3-3 shape most of the time under Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool have mixed it up since Arne Slot’s arrival in the summer of 2024.

This season, they appear to have recently settled on a 4-2-3-1 shape with one of Hugo Ekitike or Alexander Isak leading the line, flanked by Mo Salah and Cody Gakpo and with one of Dominik Szoboszlai or Florian Wirtz in the No.10 role.

The double pivot of Alexis Mac Allister and Ryan Gravenberch was central to last season’s title, while Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate play almost every minute of every game at central defence.

Georgian Giorgi Mamardashvili is the current occupier of the goalkeeper’s shirt with regular first choice Alisson out injured.

Summer activity

Liverpool responded to winning last season’s title by making several big-ticket additions to their squad.

Newcastle striker Isak and Bayer Leverkusen’s Wirtz were the most notable signings of all, attracting attention from all over the football world.

Ekitike, bought from Eintracht Frankfurt, has further bolstered their attacking options.

They also signed players across the backline, including Bournemouth left-back Milos Kerkez and Leverkusen right-back and former City Academy man Jeremie Frimpong.

We’ll no longer be seeing the likes of Trent Alexander-Arnold, Luis Diaz, Darwin Nunez and Jarell Quansah in a Liverpool shirt after they moved on in the summer.

Manager

Arne Slot had the unenviable task of following up the much-loved Klopp before the start of the 2024/25 season but won plaudits on his way to a Premier League title in his first season.

He spent his whole professional playing career in his native Netherlands, representing FC Zwolle, NAC Breda, Sparta Rotterdam and PEC Zwolle before retiring in 2013.

His coaching career began with Cambuur in 2016 before a stop at AZ Alkmaar.

It was at Feyenoord where he captured the global game’s attention, leading them to the Eredivisie title in 2022/23.

Since coming to Liverpool, he’s had a 64.6% win percentage in the Premier League – which places him second overall of all the current managers behind our very own Pep on 71.6%.

Head-to-head record

We lost both Premier League meetings with Liverpool last season, as many defeats as we’d suffered in our previous 12 against them.

Of the 56 times we’ve played in the Premier League era, Liverpool have won 23.

However, the vast majority of those have come at Anfield, with City winning 10 and losing just five of the 28 encounters at the Etihad or Maine Road.

WATCH: City 4-1 Liverpool: Brief highlights

It’s well worth noting that these two sides have spent many of Guardiola’s era directly battling for the title, with City coming out on top at the end of the season more often than not.

The Etihad in particular has played host to games between the two that have been considered some of the best games ever played in the Premier League.

How they score goals

Only City, with 20, have scored more than Liverpool’s 18 strikes so far this season.

That has come from a league-high amount of shots, 156. Slot’s side are performing largely in line with their xG at this point, which registers at 17.3, meaning they tend to take their chances at a consistent rate.

They have eight different goalscorers so far, making them the fifth best side in the league at sharing the goals out amongst the squad.

With 12 strikes in the second half, including eight in the last 15 minutes, we’ll have to keep our wits about us right until the very end.

Two of their goals have come from fast breaks, while they are one of just two sides yet to score a header.

Mo Salah has nine goals and six assists against City in the Premier League – the most goal involvements against us of any Premier League player ever.

Salah remains their biggest threat so far this season, netting four times in the league while Ekitike, Gravenberch and Gakpo all have three each.

How they defend

Liverpool’s 14 goals conceded puts them firmly in the middle of the Premier League pack defensively.

For example, that is six more than second-best City and 11 more than Arsenal.

Having conceded an xG of 12.4 and the 13th most shots in the league, it suggests they’re struggling to keep out efforts more regularly than many other sides in the division.

Only two teams have conceded more than the seven set-piece strikes they’ve let in, while they are seemingly more susceptible to conceding in the second half having let in nine after half-time and five before it.

With 96 fouls committed, they’re the fourth cleanest team in the division – seven fouls more than City in top spot.

Giorgi Mamardashvili is likely to start in goal and in his four appearances so far, he’s produced a save percentage of 66.7%, putting him 13th of the 27 goalkeepers to have played so far.