On Saturday, Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City welcome Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool to the Etihad Stadium. This is a matchup that has provided many thrills in recent years and one player who knows this game as well as anyone else is former City striker – Sergio Agüero.
Speaking to Stake, the Argentine offered his thoughts on Manchester City’s match this weekend, as well as his own historic connections with Liverpool and Michael Owen.
During his decade in the Premier League, Agüero faced faced Liverpool fifteen times – scoring an impressive seven goals, while contributing three assists. Surprisingly though, as a child Agüero had supported the Reds, explaining that Michael Owen was the reason why.
‘I used to like Liverpool when I was younger because of [Michael] Owen, who had also started as a teenager. Even when I was playing on my PlayStation I tried to play like Owen.’
Since then, Agüero has grown into a Cityzen, and is hoping they can secure three points tomorrow in what will likely be a ‘tooth-and-nail’ game. Last season, the two fixtures between these recent rivals resulted in one win apiece – but City remain favourites for tomorrow’s clash.
In fact, the Blues haven’t lost at home to Liverpool in a league game since a 4-1 defeat in 2015 – City’s lone goal scorer being Agüero, of course.
Embed from Getty Images‘Just like every match against Liverpool, it’ll be tooth-and-nail. Both managers know each other deeply, and they’ll try and one-up the opposition somehow. You certainly can’t miss that one… I hope it goes City’s way because those three points could be decisive against a rival for the title.’
Speaking about the squad for the fixture, Agüero was keen to pile on the praise for Jérémy Doku, who has hit the ground running since arriving in Manchester this summer.
‘He’s clearly got courage, he’s always looking to feint, assist and score,’ explained Agüero.
Doku has so far scored two goals in this Premier League campaign, while also chipping in with five assists. While this is a respectable record on its own, heads were turned when the Belgian international grabbed four of those assists – as well as a goal – in an inspirational performance against Bournemouth earlier this season.
Doku arrives at City as an unpolished product though, and there is hope he can be moulded by Pep’s vision. Agüero compared him to Jack Grealish in this respect.
‘He’s done well so far. There’s time for him to be polished, and it’s both Guardiola and his teammates who can help him adapt further to the playstyle.’
Only time will tell what Saturday has in store for us, but we can be certain that Manchester City v Liverpool will provide us with much excitement. The match is scheduled to kickoff at 12:30 UK on Saturday, 25 November 2023.
