Solving Phil Foden conundrum will be key to Man City breaking Liverpool FC run at Anfield

Erling Haaland can silence any remaining doubters from his Community Shield blank against Liverpool on Sunday as Manchester City look to record a statement win at Anfield.

However, while City know exactly what they will get from Haaland and how he will play, so do Liverpool. Key to City's good form so far this season is the supporting cast behind Haaland, so getting the likes of Phil Foden, Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva and co. firing will prove just as important on Sunday as anything Haaland does.

De Bruyne and Bernardo have enjoyed recent meetings with Liverpool, while Ilkay Gundogan was brilliant in their only win on the red side of Stanley Park back in 2021. Those players can all be trusted in their usual positions - so maybe the key to beating Liverpool on their own patch infront of a noisy crowd will be solving a dilemma of where to play Foden.

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Usually, City would play Foden on the left, with Riyad Mahrez or maybe Bernardo on the right, while Jack Grealish is now an option for these big games. Foden has a good record against Liverpool - three goals and two assists in seven appearances - with his brilliant goal at Anfield last season showing why he's so dangerous off the left-wing.

His stand-out performance in last season's away game saw him force stand-in right-back James Milner into an early substitution, before Joe Gomez replaced him in Trent Alexander-Arnold's absence. With Gomez likely to be right-back on Sunday, Foden would be confident of winning that duel.

And in City's 2021 win at Anfield, behind closed doors, it was Foden who scored and assisted, operating as a false nine but often drifting left as Gundogan