The Community Shield matches the previous season’s Premier League and FA Cup champions to raise the curtain on the season. However, with Manchester City winning both pieces of silverware (to go along with the League Cup, and thus accomplish a very historic domestic treble last season), the opponent will be the league runner-up and that’s Liverpool FC.
While the Community Shield is a glorified friendly to most, and doesn’t count all that much to some, it is still a trophy match. And it’s important to get off on the right foot and set a good tone for the campaign ahead.
For the team news, injury reports and manager press conferences ahead of this game go to this link.
With that in mind, Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp said he’s concerned about his back line, and how they might perform against high powered, treble winning City in the Shield. Also, Liverpool’s preseason has been dreadful, for whatever that’s worth.
Not that it really means all that much.
That said, let’s take a look at who the two managers might select for their first teams; ahead of tomorrow when both bosses will give their respective pre-match news conferences.
Manchester City Starting XI Prediction for the Community Shield
Raheem Sterling Sergio Aguero Bernardo Silva
Kevin De Bruyne Rodri David Silva
Kyle Walker John Stones Nicolas Otamendi Oleksandr Zinchenko
Ederson
Liverpool FC Starting XI Prediction for the Community Shield
Divock Origi Roberto Firmino Mohamed Salah
Georginio Wijnaldum Naby Keita Jordan Henderson
Trent Alexander-Arnold Joel Matip Virgil van Dijk Andrew Robertson
Simon Mignolet
Community Shield Kickoff: Sunday, August 4, 2019 (8/4/19) at Wembley Stadium in London, England, at 10 a.m. EDT.
Community Shield Prediction: City 3, Liverpool 2
We’ll take the Sky Blues over the Reds because City has more of their key guys better integrated with the team, and closer to regular season form than Liverpool does.
Klopp’s side has seen a few players delayed in returning to the team/participating in training, due to international duty and injuries.
As always, feel free to post to your own Manchester City and/or Liverpool starting XI predictions, as well as your score predictions, in the comments section below.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
You can follow Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com on Twitter here and his cat on Instagram at this link.