Both teams are pondering whether to hold back their returning World Cup players and trust with youth for Thursday’s fourth-round tie at the Etihad Stadium.
Jurgen Klopp was particularly impressed with Ben Doak, Stefan Bajcetic and Melkamu Frauendorf after Liverpool put four goals past AC Milan in their last of two mid-season friends.
“In these 10, 11 days, the kids especially, everybody made a real step forward,” he said after a training camp in Dubai.
That’s why these things are so important, that we can involve them. And in general, tonight was the result of the last 10 days what we saw in training and tonight we could bring it on the pitch, which is obviously nice.”
Absent for Liverpool will be Arthur Melo (thigh), Diogo Jota (calf) and Luis Diaz (knee). Ibrahima Konate is also unavailable following France’s World Cup final defeat.
However, Klopp’s injury issues have eased over the break with Naby Keita and Joel Matip back fit. They are likely to start against City with question marks over Virgil van Dijk, Jordan Henderson and their other stars of Qatar.
In terms of tactics, Liverpool will have to decide how best to fit Mohamed Salah, Darwin Nunez, Fabio Carvalho and Roberto Firmino into a line-up that could also feature Harvey Elliott.
Predicted Liverpool XI: Kelleher; Alexander-Arnold; Matip, Gomez, Robertson; Thiago, Keita; Salah, Carvalho; Nunez, Firmino.
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