Manchester City travel to Merseyside to take on Liverpool in a possible season-deciding Premier League encounter and there’s a fair chance that Jack Grealish and Jeremy Doku both miss out.
Jack Grealish first picked up a muscle injury during the first leg of Man City’s Champions League tie vs FC Copenhagen and then he went on to aggrevate that injury on his return to action in the FA Cup fifth round tie against Luton Town at Kenilworth Road.
The recent reports are suggesting that MCFC have learnt their lessons which is why they are not going to run Jack Grealish back into action until his groin issue has been completely resolved.
Doku is Grealish’s natural replacement out on the left flank but he too is out injured. The summer signing’s injury is not too serious and Pep has said in his press conference that he is going to take a late call regarding Doku’s selection for Sunday’s trip to Anfield.
Who will play on the left flank if Doku and Jack Grealish are both missing vs Liverpool?
Thankfully, Jack Grealish, Jeremy Doku and Nunes are the only three injured players on Man City’s squad right now so Guardiola does not have too much to worry about.
Phil Foden has been in red-hot form for Man City and the England international will move to the left-hand side for Sunday’s away game which means Bernardo Silva will play out on the right.
If the MCFC manager opts for a 4-1-4-1 formation then both Julian Alvarez and KDB start but if Pep goes with two defensive midfielders then Alvarez will have to start on the bench.
Quality-wise there won’t be any deterioration because Foden has scored and assisted 18 EPL goals this season and in fact, he’s in much better form right now than Jack Grealish and Doku.
The third option that Pep has is to use Alvarez out on the right flank, keep Phil Foden in his favoured left-hand side and then put De Bruyen and Silva as the two advanced midfielders.
Guardiola has this habit of coming up with surprising selections and tactics for such high-profile matches but we doubt he is going to do anything over the top on Sunday, primarily because this is an away game. The last time MCFC won at Anfield was way back in February of 2021 when they beat Liverpool 4-1 in the Premier League.
