Manchester City vs Liverpool Preview: Lijnders Returns, Guardiola's Ban & A Centre-Back Crisis at the Etihad

Pepijn Lijnders spent the best part of a decade at Anfield. He knows the pressing triggers, the set-piece routines, the build-up patterns that define Liverpool under the lights. On Saturday lunchtime at the Etihad, he will be the man in the opposing technical area, managing Manchester City from the touchline while Pep Guardiola serves a two-match domestic ban picked up during the fifth-round win at Newcastle.

It is one of the stranger subplots in a fixture that needs no embellishment. City have already beaten Liverpool twice in the Premier League this season, 3-0 at the Etihad in November and 2-1 at Anfield in February, City's first league double over Liverpool since 1936-37. Now they meet again in the FA Cup quarter-final, 12:45 BST at the Etihad, with a Wembley semi-final waiting for the winner on the weekend of 25-26 April.

For City, the FA Cup is one of only two remaining trophies alongside the Premier League. The Champions League ended in humiliation against Real Madrid, a 5-1 aggregate demolition that included a Valverde hat-trick at the Bernabéu. The Carabao Cup is already in the cabinet. For Liverpool, the cup and Europe are all that is left, the title defence having dissolved into a 21-point gap behind Arsenal. Arne Slot's side sit fifth, five points off the Champions League places, and travel to PSG in the quarter-final first leg just three or four days after this.

Liverpool's Premier League form has unravelled at the worst possible time. A 2-1 defeat at Brighton on 21st March extended a winless league run to three matches, following a 1-1 draw with Tottenham in which Richarlison's 90th-minute equaliser undid an afternoon of control. Ten defeats in 31 league games have left the defending champions closer to seventh than to first, and the Anfield crowd has let Slot know about it.

The European form tells a different story. Liverpool dismantled Galatasaray 4-0 at Anfield in the Champions League last-sixteen second leg, Szoboszlai, Ekitike, Gravenberch, and Salah all scoring in a performance that reminded everyone what this squad is capable of when the occasion demands it. That is the contradiction Slot is navigating: a team that can produce knockout-round authority one week and lose at the Amex the next.

The pressure on Slot is real and growing. David Ornstein reported in late March that Liverpool have no plans to change coach, but the noise around Xabi Alonso, available since his sacking by Real Madrid in January, has not gone away. Jürgen Klopp's return to Anfield for a Legends match on 28th March, greeted with the kind of warmth Slot can only dream of, added another layer of emotional complexity to a tenure that is being defined by inconsistency. Slot himself acknowledged it after the Brighton defeat: “There is always pressure at Liverpool, on me, on the players. That is completely normal. It is still not good enough in the position we are in right now.”

Nico O'Reilly scored both goals in a 2-0 Carabao Cup final victory over Arsenal on 22nd March, the 21-year-old academy product announcing himself on the biggest domestic stage with a performance that belied his age. It was City's first trophy of the season and a reminder that Guardiola's squad, even through the turbulence of the last eighteen months, still knows how to win when it matters.

The week before told a more sobering story. Real Madrid's 3-0 first-leg win at the Bernabéu, in which Federico Valverde scored a hat-trick, was followed by a 2-1 defeat at home in the return leg, City exiting 5-1 on aggregate in the most comprehensive European elimination of Guardiola's career. The response was immediate: three days later, O'Reilly's double at Wembley. That ability to compartmentalise has been a hallmark of this squad under Guardiola, and it will be tested again on Saturday against opponents who have troubled them less than almost any other English side this season.

City's home record underlines the point. Seven wins from their last nine at the Etihad, averaging 2.4 goals per game, with the last home defeat to an English team coming against Tottenham on the second weekend of the season in August. The Etihad has been a fortress when it has needed to be, and the FA Cup path so far has been comfortable: 10-1 against Exeter, 2-0 against Salford, and a 3-1 win at Newcastle in the fifth round where Omar Marmoush scored twice.

City's defensive options have been stripped to the bone. Josko Gvardiol's broken tibia, sustained in January, ended his season. John Stones withdrew from England duty on 1st April with a calf injury, Tuchel describing it as minor but saying caution was needed given the defender's history, which in Stones's case is rarely reassuring. Ruben Dias has been nursing a hamstring problem since before the Carabao Cup final, missing Portugal's friendlies, and is targeting a return for this match or the Chelsea league game on 12th April. If neither Stones nor Dias passes a fitness test, City's centre-back pairing will be Abdukodir Khusanov and Marc Guehi, the January signing from Crystal Palace who was ineligible for the Carabao Cup but available here.

Erling Haaland was given a reduced international workload with Norway and will be fully fresh, which is the news Liverpool least wanted to hear. Rodri continues to manage his fitness after a lengthy injury layoff, but has been a regular in the squad since his return. The front-line selection is Guardiola's biggest call, with Doku, Semenyo, Marmoush, and Cherki all competing for places around Haaland. Doku tormented Liverpool in the 3-0 November win, Semenyo has five goals in eight Premier League appearances since his January arrival from Bournemouth, and Marmoush scored twice in the cup fifth round.

Liverpool's headline is Salah's fitness. He missed the Brighton defeat on 21st March with a muscle concern, but Slot was optimistic in his press conference on 1st April: “Close, very close. Mo looked at me and said, 'I think I will be available for City.' He just does so much for his body, he recovers so fast. He will train with the team tomorrow.” If Salah trains fully on Thursday, he starts. Alexander Isak, out for over three months with a broken leg, is set for his first full training session on Thursday as well, but a place on the bench would be the most realistic target, with PSG in the Champions League the likelier comeback fixture. Alisson remains out with an unspecified injury, meaning Giorgi Mamardashvili continues in goal. The biggest concern is Jeremie Frimpong, who was forced off during the international break with the Netherlands. Scan results were still pending as of Slot's press conference. If Frimpong fails his fitness test, Szoboszlai slots in at right-back, a position he has been asked to fill multiple times this season due to Conor Bradley's long-term knee injury.

Predicted Man City XI (4-2-3-1): Trafford; Nunes, Khusanov, Guehi, Aït-Nouri; Rodri, Bernardo Silva; Doku, Cherki, Semenyo; Haaland

Predicted Liverpool XI (4-2-3-1): Mamardashvili; Frimpong, Konaté, Van Dijk, Kerkez; Gravenberch, Mac Allister; Salah, Wirtz, Gakpo; Ekitike

City's 3-0 victory in November was Guardiola's 1,000th match as a manager, and Liverpool barely laid a glove on them. Haaland opened the scoring on 29 minutes, Nico González doubled the lead before half-time, and Doku's second-half strike completed a performance of total control. Michael Oliver was the VAR official that evening, and Liverpool formally contacted PGMOL with “serious concerns” after Virgil van Dijk's header was ruled out for offside, Andy Robertson deemed to be interfering with play.

The Anfield return in February was tighter but no less painful for Liverpool. Szoboszlai's stunning free-kick on 74 minutes looked to have rescued a point, only for Bernardo Silva to equalise from close range ten minutes later and Haaland to convert from the penalty spot in added time. Szoboszlai's evening ended with a red card for a shirt-pull on Haaland, a moment of frustration that captured Liverpool's entire season in a single frame. City's league double over Liverpool is their first since 1936-37, a statistic that speaks to just how decisively the balance of power has shifted this campaign.

Pepijn Lijnders was Klopp's assistant for the best part of a decade. He helped refine the gegenpressing system, refined the set-piece delivery, and sat in the tactical meetings where Liverpool's build-up shape was deconstructed and rebuilt season after season. Now he is on the other side of the touchline with a specific brief: exploit what he knows.

Liverpool press less aggressively under Slot than they did under Klopp, trigger-based rather than relentless. Slot himself acknowledged the evolution after the February defeat at the Etihad: “The biggest improvement in the last three or four months, the whole team is now able at the highest level to do so well off the ball.” But the triggers are the key, and Lijnders knows where they are. City's willingness to go long to Haaland when the press is committed, a tactical shift that has made Guardiola's side more direct than any of his previous teams, bypasses the press entirely and puts the ball in the area where Liverpool are most vulnerable: against aerial threat with their centre-backs isolated.

City's own vulnerability is at centre-back. If Khusanov and Guehi start together, it will be the first time they have partnered in a competitive fixture, and Liverpool's front line, Ekitike's pace in behind, Salah cutting inside from the right, Wirtz drifting between the lines, is designed to stretch and rotate a defence. The question is whether City's attacking quality makes the centre-back pairing irrelevant, or whether Liverpool can generate enough chances to make it count.

Haaland vs Van Dijk: Haaland has scored in both league meetings this season, a penalty at Anfield and the opener at the Etihad, and arrives with a reduced international workload behind him. His record of 22 Premier League goals in 29 appearances this campaign, from 100 shots, makes him the most potent striker in the division by some distance. Van Dijk has been Liverpool's most consistent performer all season, but the two February meetings exposed moments where even he struggled to contain Haaland's movement, particularly when City's double-pivot structure freed the Norwegian to drop deeper and spin in behind. Van Dijk's aerial dominance from set pieces, three league goals this season, gives Liverpool a weapon at the other end, but his primary job on Saturday is keeping Haaland quiet, and no one in the Premier League has managed that consistently this season.

Ekitike vs City's makeshift defence: Hugo Ekitike has been Liverpool's most reliable attacking threat with Isak sidelined, 11 goals and 4 assists in 26 league appearances, and his 1.8 successful dribbles per 90 lead the Liverpool squad. If City's centre-back pairing is Khusanov and Guehi, neither will have partnered the other competitively before, and Ekitike's pace in the channels is exactly the kind of threat that exploits unfamiliarity. The 23-year-old became the youngest Liverpool player to reach double figures in a Premier League season since Michael Owen in 2000-01, and this is the kind of fixture that defines whether his first season at Anfield becomes something more than promising.

Salah's last Etihad: If Mohamed Salah is fit, this will almost certainly be his final appearance at the Etihad as a Liverpool player. His departure was confirmed on 24th March, 255 goals in 435 appearances ending with a mutual agreement to part ways at the end of the season. Salah's record in big matches needs no introduction, and his set-piece delivery from corners remains one of Liverpool's most dangerous weapons. The emotional weight of a farewell tour adds an unpredictable dimension. Against a City defence missing up to three first-choice centre-backs, Salah cutting inside from the right onto his left foot is a combination of sentiment and genuine tactical threat.

For Liverpool, this is about more than one match. Fifth in the Premier League, five points adrift of fourth-place Aston Villa with seven league games remaining, Champions League qualification is not guaranteed through domestic performance. The FA Cup and the Champions League itself are the two clearest routes to silverware, and potentially to next season's European football if the league position does not recover. Slot framed it in his press conference: “We have shown so many times this season that we can be a very good team. Unfortunately, we have also shown a few times that we look vulnerable.” The squad management question is acute. PSG await in the Champions League quarter-final first leg three or four days after this match, and the temptation to rotate against City will be weighed against the reality that opportunities to reach Wembley do not come around every week.

City's calculation is simpler. The Carabao Cup is won, the Champions League is gone, and the Premier League requires Arsenal to collapse from nine points clear. The FA Cup represents a realistic shot at a domestic double, and the path through the quarter-final bracket, with Chelsea hosting Port Vale and West Ham facing Leeds in the other ties, is not unkind. Guardiola's squad can go full strength with no European football to manage around, a luxury Liverpool do not have.

Michael Oliver has been appointed for the quarter-final, his first FA Cup assignment of the season and his 35th match across all competitions. His Premier League numbers this campaign show an average of 2.8 to 2.9 cards per match across 19 fixtures, with 53 yellows and 1 red, but the standout figure is his penalty record: just one awarded in 19 Premier League matches, notably low for a referee who gives around 470 fouls per season, the highest of any top-flight official.

Oliver's recent history with both clubs adds texture. City are winless in three Oliver-refereed matches this season, draws with Chelsea and West Ham bookending a defeat at Aston Villa in which he incorrectly awarded the corner that led to Matty Cash's winning goal. His most recent Liverpool match was the Manchester United surprise win at Anfield, where he waved play on after Alexis Mac Allister went down with a head injury and United scored moments later. Last season, he sent off both Slot and assistant Sipke Hulshoff after the Merseyside derby at Goodison Park. Liverpool's formal approach to PGMOL over the Van Dijk offside decision in November, when Oliver was the VAR official, adds another layer to a relationship that has been anything but straightforward.

This is a match framed by departures. Salah and Bernardo Silva are both playing out the final weeks of careers at clubs where they became legends, and both know that a Wembley semi-final is the kind of stage that farewells deserve. Guardiola himself may be managing his last months at the Etihad, with reports from L'Equipe suggesting he will “almost certainly” leave at the end of the season, even as City have formally asked him to clarify his intentions.

On the pitch, the dynamics are clear. City have dominated this fixture all season, they are at home, they have no European commitments to manage around, and their squad is fresher. Liverpool's attacking quality, even in a difficult season, is undeniable, and City's centre-back crisis opens a door that Ekitike, Salah, and Wirtz are more than capable of walking through. The question is whether Slot trusts his strongest eleven knowing PSG are waiting midweek, or whether the rotation dilemma hands City an advantage before a ball is kicked.