Community Shield 2022: Klopp and Guardiola go again

Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp go again at the Community Shield, who draws the first blood? (Photo credit: Sky Sports)

The premier league traditional curtain raiser is upon us, it is the customary season opener between the league winners and the FA Cup winners and in this instance, it’s a game between Liverpool and Manchester City.

It’s a toe in the water game ahead of what is to come in the new season. We’ll have a first glance of Erling Braut Haaland for Manchester City and Darwin Nunez for Liverpool; City will begin their post Sterling-Jesus-Zinchenko era as well but with Kalvin Phillips also making a potential debut.

The season is upon us and we hope to have a lot of fun but how will the Community Shield pan out at the Wembley Stadium? Liverpool had a torrid pre-season tour with notable losses to Manchester United and RB Leipzig while the champions enjoyed victories over Bayern Munich and few other teams.

Jurgen Klopp of Liverpool has asked for more time and more friendlies ahead of the new season but the best he’d get would be City at the Shield cup and behind closed door games before the league resumes properly next weekend.

Liverpool will be without Sadio Mane who moved to the Bundesliga champions and with news of Firminho to Juventus – which Klopp already dismissed; we could be having a new look Liverpool side this season especially in the attack.

Pep Guardiola remains in the hunt for a left back cover after Zinchenko departed to Arsenal and Marc Cucurella already handed in a transfer request to force a move and that could be a game changer and we’d wait to see how that pans out.

The rules allow multiple substitutions, you can expect both managers to give some players the opportunity to impress and fight for their spots in respective teams; the likes of Harvey Elliot and new signing Fabio Carvalho will seek attention while Liam Delap and the academy boys at City would do the same.

Both sides will fight for this but it would be more for match fitness than trophy haul, and as we all expect, it would be another opportunity for both to get noses in front; from all indications, both sides would still be the sides to beat this term but we must ask… Who will draw the first blood?

Verdict: Both teams to score