Man City v Liverpool Balance Builder Grealish BC

Julien Alvarez has now established himself as a first teamer after a quieter start to his City career.

Many believed he wouldn’t get a look in due to one of the worlds best strikers, Erling Haaland, being in front of him in the pecking order. However after in injury to KDB, Alvarez has been thrown into the team and has flourished.

This season, Alvarez has had at least 2 shots in 11 or his 12 PL games. You have to go way back to August to find the least time he failed to hit 2 shots (1.91 p/90 on avg).

With Haaland racing to be fit for this game, we may see Alvarez get the nod up top which will open up even more opportunities for him in front of goal.

In his last 5 games alone he’s averaging 2.4 shots p/90 which is the right form to be going into a game like this.

Mo Salah is a long established cult hero for Liverpool. Now in his 7th season with Liverpool he continues to perform at an exceptionally high level.

Salah is absolutely integral to Liverpool and a lot of their play goes through him and I’ll expect nothing less when they match up against City in what should be a very good game.

This season, Salah has changed his game to offer more in Liverpool’s build up play. This has meant we are seeing slightly less shots than ‘The old Salah’ but he’s still averaging a respectful 2.93 shots p/90.

This is how many shots he’s had in his last 7 games – 3,4,2,4,1,2,4.

Against City specifically, Salah has hit on average 2.2 shots and only on 1 occasion in the last 7 games has he not achieved 2 or more shots.

Liverpool will be including Salah in as much play as possible so I’m expecting that he will have chances to get shots off.

Mac Allister is part of a completely new Liverpool midfield who seem to finally be finally finding some form and cohesion.

With the introduction of Endo, it has allowed Mac Allister to have a little more freedom in the middle of the park, pushing further forward and be more involved in the play.

The Argentinian has quite a lot to offer in his game, but one thing that seems to be more prominent than other traits, is his ability to commit fouls. He finished last season on 1.09 fouls p/90.

This season, Mac Allister is operating at the highest fouls p/90 in his career to date, which is 2.14. After12 PL games, that is pretty impressive.

Playing against a strong, quick, skilful City team will certainly test Mac Allister. He could be up against a host of player who all draw fouls. Rodri (0.99 fouls drawn p/90), Foden (1.86 fouls drawn p/90), Nunes 1.84 p/90).

I can’t see him getting through a game without committing at least 1 foul here.

Given Grealish’s penchant for tying defenders up in knots, it’s no surprise to see the England international is one of the most fouled players in the league. The City winger has received criticism for his willingness to ‘fall over’ at every opportunity, but he certainly wins free kicks for his team in doing so.

Last season, he was 3rd most fouled in the league, being fouled on avg 3.42 p/90.

Grealish has won fouls his whole career. Every season in his professional career he’s won on avg more than 2.5 fouls p/90 which shows just how well he draws the opposition in.

This season is no different. Currently that avg is 2.97. No surprises to hear that he leads in most fouls won for Man City (only just ahead of Doku on 2.47 p/90).

This is the type of game where we should see plenty of play wide. Liverpool are without Robertson So Tsimikas is tipped to start and TAA will be back at RB where he struggles to defend, especially against these type of tricky wingers. City will look to exploit these weaker areas.