Liverpool vs Man City: Will Haaland make amends for Community Shield misfire?

In recent years, the clash between Liverpool and Manchester City has always been known as a title six-pointer. Considering the title has been won by one of these two in the last five seasons, it is plain to see why. During those years, Liverpool have only won two out of the ten matches in the Premier League between the sides and one of those came in the season they won the league. Only four of those clashes have gone in the way of City, but at the same time so did four of the league titles. 

One of the other themes of this fixture has always been the match up of Jurgen Klopp vs Pep Guardiola, a rivalry built in the Bundesliga and evolved in the Premier League. Despite Guardiola having the upper hand when it has come to trophies, both in Germany and in England, it is Klopp who has won the battle on more occasions, bettering his counterpart in 10 of their 24 meetups, compared to Guardiola’s eight successes and the rest ending in a draw. 

However, going into this weekend, Guardiola’s men find themselves as usual challenging near the top, a point off first-placed Arsenal, but for Klopp’s side, they have only two wins to their name and sit in mid-table. Despite Guardiola admitting that his opponents for the weekend are “still the biggest challengers” to his side's Premier League crown, there is a different feel coming into this clash on the back of Liverpool’s questionable start to the season. 

While City have started the season on all fronts unbeaten, Liverpool have only picked up 10 points of a possible 24 in the league and come into this clash with several injury concerns, notably Joel Matip, Luis Diaz and Trent Alexander-Arnold, among a few others. A loss here for Liverpool will no doubt pile on the pressure ahead of a hectic schedule before the World Cup. 

Nevertheless, the last two competitive meetings between the sides has in fact gone in the Reds' favour, beating City in last year's FA Cup semi-final and in the curtain raiser for this season, the Community Shield. That match in July also offered fans a chance to see the first clash of two of the summer’s biggest signings, Darwin Nunez and Erling Haaland. 

The result on the day went in Liverpool’s favour, and not only that; but Nunez scored his side's third and was named man of the match. Haaland on the other hand didn’t have the greatest of introductions and even missed an open goal, a clip that did the rounds on social media… for about a week. Since that day, the fortunes of both strikers have gone in completely different directions. 

Haaland has played in all of City’s league games so far this campaign, scoring 15 goals already. For context, last year’s joint-top scorers - Mohamed Salah and Son Heung-Min - ended the season on 23 goals. Nunez on the other hand has only scored twice and has missed three of Liverpool’s games owing to being suspended after a straight red card in Liverpool’s second league game of the season. 

Even in Europe Haaland has the upper hand, scoring five goals in three games, compared with Nunez who only bagged his first Champions League goal of the campaign on Wednesday, that coming on his fourth appearance. That did, however, mean he now has two in his last two competitive appearances after scoring on Sunday against Arsenal, which could be the spark for an upturn in his season, something Klopp will be desperate for, given the injury to Diaz, which has him ruled out until after the World Cup. 

Looking closer at the numbers and it tells a tale of just how much better Haaland has been than Nunez. While scoring six times the number of goals than Nunez across all competitions, Haaland has done so in taking fewer shots per 90, averging 4.9 compared to Nunez’s 6.2. This has resulted in the Norwegian boasting a conversion rate more than three times better (38.5%) than the Uruguayan (9.4%).  

It has been far from the perfect start for Nunez by any means, but in this moment in time comparing yourself to Haaland in his current form... not many would rate themselves very highly. Price tags are another factor, which often play a part in a player’s confidence, but if Nunez can use these last two goals as a benchmark to kickstart his season, then there’s no better time to do it then in front of his home fans up against Haaland, in what will be a massive test of his side to kickstart their season.