Liverpool v Manchester City: Community Shield team news
Jürgen Klopp intends to take full advantage of the opportunity to make six substitutions in Sunday's FA Community Shield clash with Manchester City.
Each side is permitted to name seven players on the bench for the curtain-raiser at Wembley and deploy all but one across the 90 minutes.
Klopp has welcomed the regulation and as the Liverpool manager continues to carefully juggle his squad based on individual fitness levels, he is planning his line-up with six changes in mind in advance.
“The good thing is we can have six substitutions, that’s really good,” said the German, who welcomed back Alisson Becker, Roberto Firmino, Naby Keita, Mohamed Salah and Xherdan Shaqiri this week.
“We’ll make a squad for the game, not for the season. We will find the line-up, for sure.
“We will find a starting line-up where you can change six times in that early a game in the season against a very demanding opponent who asks for a lot of footwork and runs and all that stuff. We will probably use all six [subs].”
Klopp gave minutes to 27 players during the course of a 3-1 victory over Lyon in Geneva on Wednesday but has since trimmed his squad for the trip to Wembley.
“We sent a couple of young players home [from the training camp in Evian],” he noted on Friday.
“They showed really nice signs, all of them, and I told them when we let them go home, because now we prepare the game really and they can train at home with the U23s. That made absolute sense.”
Sadio Mane will not be involved; the No.10 links up with the squad again on Monday having reached the Africa Cup of Nations final with Senegal last month.
The Reds are also without the injured Nathaniel Clyne and Caoimhin Kelleher, while Ryan Kent has been ill.
Manchester City have two absentees for the game at Wembley, with Fernandinho and Benjamin Mendy not ready to face the Reds.
Like Liverpool, however, the reigning Premier League champions have been affected by the late returns of players involved in the Copa America or AFCON.
The likes of Sergio Aguero, Ederson, Gabriel Jesus, Nicolas Otamendi and Riyad Mahrez reported for pre-season earlier this week and are therefore likely to be restricted to the bench.
“The physical condition [of the squad] is not the best,” said City boss Pep Guardiola at his pre-match press conference.
“We will try to play with players who played minutes in pre-season because they have rhythm and they know the situation.
“The guys who came back later maybe will have a few minutes. There are more chances of substitutions. I think it will be hot in London. Every week, our condition will be better. I think we will play at a high intensity on Sunday – a good level.”