This weekend, the game that is the traditional curtain raiser to the new Premier League season will take place at the somewhat unusual venue of the King Power Stadium in Leicester.
Manchester City, the Champions of the Premier League, will take on Liverpool, the Carabao Cup and FA Cup winners, in the Community Shield, with this year’s game being played in Leicester due to Wembley hosting the final of the Women’s Euro 2022 tournament.
City held on to the league title by just a point from Liverpool, with the Reds close to an almost perfect season, but ultimately coming up short in the Premier League by a point and then losing the Champions League Final to Real Madrid, in a game that they otherwise dominated.
However, this season promises to be an even more exciting one, with both teams making significant changes to their playing squad this season, with a number of big names being sold out of and brought into both clubs.
That makes this weekend’s game all the more intriguing – Which of the two teams are better adapting to their new look starting eleven? Which signings have fitted in the best, and which players sold are both teams going to miss?
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Let’s now take a closer look at the forthcoming Community Shield, as well as both the teams and the changes they have made to their squad over the pre-season period.
This year’s Community Shield is the 100th time just such a fixture has been played, although the tournament has not always been between the winners of the League Title and the FA Cup.
For many years, the fixture was organised under a number of different names and featured a number of different teams competing, including games between Amateurs and Professionals, the First Division and Southern League Champions.
However, since 1930, the League Champions against the FA Cup holders has generally been the game to contest for the trophy, but there have been times when there have been deviations from this.
In the early 1970s, teams would often decline to take part in the game, leading to some unusual fixtures but by 1974, the FA moved the game to Wembley and stated that it would be contested going forward by the League and FA Cup holders.
For many years, the Shield could be shared between teams if the match finished as a draw and this occurred on 11 occasions, but by 1993, a penalty shootout was introduced after 90 minutes to decide the winner.
Format is Club Name – Total Wins (Shared wins shown in brackets)
Only one team, Brighton & Hove Albion, have won the trophy without winning the FA Cup or League Title in their history. Leicester City had held that record too after their 1971 success too, but have since won both the FA Cup (2021) and the League title (2016).
Let’s now preview how the two new-look teams could potentially face off against each other this weekend.
City claimed their place in the Charity Shield by virtue of pipping Liverpool to the Premier League title by just one point once again, the second time in four years they have beat Jurgen Klopp’s team to the title by just a single point.
However, they have had a relatively busy post-season and pre-season period with a number of big name players being signed by the club, and a number of first team players also moving on to pastures new.
With the transfer window still open for more than a month, City may not have finished their summer business as they have raised more in player sales than they have spent, and there are still rumours that City could be in the market for at least, if not two, more players.
Additionally, a number of City players, Bernardo Silva and Aymeric Laporte to name but two, are thought to be interesting top sides around Europe, although they remain City players at this point.
Probable Best Manchester City Team – (4-3-3) – Ederson, Walker, Cancelo, Laporte, Dias, Rodri, Phillips, De Bruyne, Haaland, Mahrez, Foden
City’s season may well hinge on how well they can adapt to having Erling Haaland as their focal point in attack. If the Norwegian superstar hits the ground running and can continue the rate at which he has scored goals for his previous clubs, Red Bull Salzburg and Borussia Dortmund, then City will be a formidable obstacle for any team in the Premier League and Europe.
Let’s now check out how their opponents will shape up this weekend.
It was almost a season to remember for Liverpool last time out, after securing both the Carabao Cup and FA Cup trophies, the Reds missed out on the Premier League by a single point and then lost the Champions League Final to Real Madrid in the space of a week.
Perhaps recognising his team needed fresh impetus, Jurgen Klopp and his team have been busy in the transfer market, with a number of big name stars leaving the club, most notably Sadio Mane, while the Reds have invested in youth, with Darwin Nunez the eye-catching signing this summer from Benfica.
With a net spend this summer of just £9m, Liverpool probably still have cash to splash on another player or two if they would like to do so over the remainder of the Transfer Window, however, it looks unlikely they will do so.
A move for Jude Bellingham looks likely next summer, and the Reds may well elect to keep their finances healthy to fund such a move while it seems unlikely that any more key first team players will leave the club this summer too.
Probable Best Liverpool Team (4-3-3) – Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Robertson, Van Dijk, Konate, Fabinho, Thiago, Henderson, Salah, Diaz, Nunez
These two teams are so well-matched and both have made similar improvements to their attack in the summer, City have also bolstered their midfield with England man Kalvin Phillips, so this is going to be an intriguing game not only to see how the teams match up against each other, but also to see whether their new signings have changed how they will approach games.
City are the 7/5 favourites to win the game, with Liverpool at 19/10. The Reds are tempting at that price, as City have been a little sluggish in pre-season and at the start of the season in the last couple of seasons.
However, my tip here is for penalties being required to decide the winner. They were when these two teams met in this game a few years back, when City landed the win via penalties and as such, I’d back the draw here at 23/10, although who wins on penalties is anybody’s guess.
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