Manchester City v Liverpool: the tactical battle for the Premier League title

Since the formation of the Premier League back in 1992, only Manchester United have managed to string together three titles in a row.

Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City, however, start the campaign as odds-on favourites to match that feat and it’s difficult to find a case for them failing.

City produced a remarkable 14-match winning run to pip Liverpool to the title last time out, a sequence of results that owed much to their improved defensive record.

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Five 1-0 victories tells the story: City are capable of grinding it out when required, and whereas their form in the middle of last season suffered because of conceding too many goals, they invariably kept clean sheets during the run-in.

The recruitment of Rodri, a composed holding midfielder who will eventually succeed Fernandinho, provides extra quality in that zone, and his height will also help City defend set-pieces – one of very few weaknesses that was obvious last season.

Nine of their 23 Premier League concessions last season came from dead-ball situations, with the near post a particular area of concern.

The departure of Vincent Kompany means City are without a major figure in the dressing room whose leadership and determination was particularly crucial when there were some bad apples in the squad, but this is a highly motivated team that plays with great intensity under Guardiola. They should be capable of coping without him.

On the pitch, the loss of Kompany shouldn’t have any major impact. He was in and out of the side over the past couple of seasons, and often appeared City’s weak link defensively.

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John Stones, however, needs to become more consistent if he is to hold down a first-team place - after three years of playing under Guardiola, he still isn’t quite the refined, top-class defender many expected.

Perhaps the only obvious weakness in the starting 11 is at left-back, an issue Guardiola has never really solved.

Benjamin Mendy has encountered problems with both injury and tactical discipline during his first two seasons at the club, Oleksandr Zinchenko is a converted midfielder who is capable of drifting into midfield to help City dominate that zone but can be exposed defensively, while the returning Angelino is untested in the Premier League.

Going forward, there appear to be few issues. Kevin De Bruyne should play a bigger role this season after injury problems last time out, the brilliant Bernardo Silva will continue to improve and Riyad Mahrez showed flashes of excellence towards the end of a slightly testing first campaign.

There is a reliance on Sergio Aguero for goals – the Argentine’s all-round game has improved hugely under Guardiola – but Gabriel Jesus is a capable deputy.

The Brazilian arguably hasn’t pushed on as expected since joining City, but goals in both the semi-final and final of Brazil’s victorious Copa America campaign demonstrated his ability.

Perhaps the best chance of City failing in the Premier League is if they go deeper in the Champions League – so far, Guardiola is yet to take City past the quarter-final stage.

Last season they had a relatively clear run at the Premier League in April and May after their narrow exit to Tottenham, and had they been forced to rotate and focus tactically upon European competition, perhaps they may have dropped points in domestic matches they narrowly won 1-0 against Burnley and Leicester.

But there are probably more fitness concerns over last season’s title rivals Liverpool.

The fact Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino were all involved in international tournaments this summer will worry Jurgen Klopp, especially considering his relative lack of replacements.

There’s always a concern that Liverpool will suffer from burnout, as appeared to be the case for Dortmund in Klopp’s final campaign in Germany. Such an intelligent coach will surely have learned lessons from that experience, but such a high-tempo game is clearly draining.

It’s highly doubtful that the top two will both collect 97-plus points -as was the case last season – but it’s far more likely that City, rather than Liverpool, will reach that mark once again.

After achieving a domestic treble last time out, it is European matches where Guardiola’s approach will be assessed most closely.

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Last season’s English success in European competition was long overdue, after a period of huge underachievement.

Indeed, while both the Champions League final and Europa League final were all-English affairs, it’s interesting to look at the current Uefa coefficient scores for each club, which are used to calculate seedings.

Calculated over five-year period, only City currently rank among Europe’s top eight clubs. Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Atletico Madrid, Juventus, Sevilla and PSG complete the list.

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It suggests that last season was very much an exception to the rule and English clubs can’t claim to be truly dominating European competition until their performance is sustained over a longer period.

English clubs can still rely on the best selection of coaches anywhere in Europe; Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp were the two most revered managers around during their period together in the Bundesliga, and that hasn’t changed now they’re competing against one another in the English top flight.

Mauricio Pochettino continues to work wonders with Tottenham, although replicating last season’s run to the Champions League final seems unlikely.

Meanwhile, Arsenal’s Unai Emery has his critics, and they came up short last time out in the Europa League, but his record in that competition is excellent and it would be a surprise if the Gunners didn’t challenge again.

The tactical acumen of the other two managers in the big six remains to be seen.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer started well at Manchester United, and made some clever tactical adjustments between games, moving between a 4-3-3 and a strikerless system effectively for some good counter-attacking performances away from home.

But United were fortunate to progress past PSG and were eventually outclassed by a Barcelona side that is hardly one of their vintage teams. They should have little problem making progress in the Europa League, however.

Chelsea appear to have followed the United template of recruiting a manager who ‘knows the club’, somewhat overlooking his complete lack of significant coaching achievements.

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Frank Lampard has united the fans and the dressing room after a couple of difficult campaigns under Antonio Conte and Maurizio Sarri, at least in terms of morale.

But Conte was a remarkably successful coach, who led Chelsea to the title and won the FA Cup even in his difficult season, and Sarri is a hugely respected figure among coaching colleagues, and brought home European silverware while also qualifying for the Champions League.

Lampard is a downgrade, and without Eden Hazard, who dominated in terms of goalscoring, assisting and dribbling past opponents, it’s difficult to consider Chelsea among Europe’s elite.

If English clubs are to dominate Europe once again, it will probably be City and Liverpool, and the familiar figures of Guardiola and Klopp, who will be responsible.

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