Liverpool vs Manchester City: Why this season’s Community Shield matters far more than most

You could say that it is about to begin, but really it has just continued. Not the seemingly never-ending football season, which is set to ‘restart’ with Sunday’s Community Shield at Wembley, but rather the rivalry between its participants that has developed from one that was purely sporting to something with a lot more spike.

Pre-season preparations have already seen Manchester City staff privately restate complaints about the more favourable media coverage they believe Liverpool receive. Pre-season press conferences have meanwhile seen Jurgen Klopp publicly reference the champions, or rather Liverpool’s effect on them.

“I don’t think they would have got 98 points if we hadn’t been around,” the German argued.

That is someway debatable, since City got 100 points the previous season when Liverpool were nowhere close to them, and it feels far more true that the champions brought out much more in the challengers. Guardiola argued this himself in April, while someway reinforcing Klopp's own point.

“This standard was last season, we helped Liverpool to achieve it and Liverpool helped us to keep going, so thanks to Liverpool we are competing.”

That, however, reflects something that is much less debatable. The City-Liverpool rivalry has reached that stage of intensity where they push each other further and thereby bring out the best in each other. At least on the pitch.

If that continues, the Community Shield might not just launch the new season, but also serve as confirmation of the new top-table rivalry that runs the English game and one of a storied lineage that really elevates it.

That between the new City and the old Sir Alex Ferguson Manchester United didn’t really last long enough, so Liverpool-City would be the first since United and Chelsea 2006-11, with a touch of the rancour of United-Arsenal 1998-2005, to follow on from Liverpool-Everton 1984-89, Liverpool-Nottingham Forest 1977-80 and Leeds United-Derby County 1971-75.

It obviously has a long way to go to get such levels, especially since Liverpool almost took everyone by surprise with the extent of their surge last season, and the big question over their campaign is whether they can get anywhere close to that 2018-19 level.

The key, however, is that it right now looks unlikely anyone else can get close.

That is ultimately how this rivalry has come about. In a football world increasingly shaped by the size of City’s resources, and the gravitational pull around that and Guardiola, Liverpool have displayed the best response. They have adapted accordingly, becoming one of the best-run clubs, and - as important as anything - one of the best at recruitment.

It is one quality they do share with City, that has put both so far ahead (/sport/football/transfers/liverpool-man-city-transfer-news-signings-well-run-clubs-manchester-united-arsenal-chelsea-a9011701.html). The two clubs have instilled singularly defined ways of playing, which means they know within five minutes of watching a potential transfer target whether he fits into their football.

Put one way, it means they avoid they sort of situation Manchester United have got themselves into this week, where they have been negotiating over a star in Paolo Dybala who they may not completely need. That just wouldn’t happen at either of these clubs. They have no need for solve-all saviour signings. They already work so well they just get what they specifically need. Rodri and Virgil van Dijk are examples of that, the very fact they fit so well only amplifying their impact.

Put bluntly, then, it means these two clubs minimise mistakes in the market while maximising their football. Everything flows from that, including some of the best performance levels the Premier League has seen for some time.

It only adds to the rivalry that those football styles are so different, yet both are at the very forefront of how the game is played. Possession and pressing have brought the two major tactical leaps over the last decade, and Guardiola and Klopp have led on them, with the two necessarily influencing each other. The orchestra against heavy metal was how it used to be branded. It is no longer so simplistic, and there are a lot of blurred lines, but the remaining differences have led to some games of gloriously intricate tactics.

Such philosophical contrasts represent another element that properly elevates a rivalry, and it has certainly elevated their games - with that really starting in January 2018.

That was when Liverpool became the first team that season to beat City in the league with a rousing 4-3, but also the first to make them actually feel well beaten.

That was not the case with Manchester United’s 3-2 comeback, or any of the four defeats last season. Guardiola could point to a certain amount of bad luck or bad form in all of those games, in a way that just occasionally happens. Not so with Liverpool. Guardiola could only point to a better team on the day.

The two Champions League quarter-finals in 2017-18 further fostered this, especially given the emphatic nature of Liverpool’s opening 3-0. That had such an impact on Guardiola, and played on his own mind so much, that it even influenced his thinking on the surprisingly tepid first-leg defeat to Tottenham Hotspur at the same stage last season. It isn’t an exaggeration to say - and thereby illustrate the point - that Klopp’s Liverpool have given the Catalan more to think about than anyone else during his time at City.

So much for him and Jose Mourinho occupying the same town. Only one club has come close to occupying the same space.

Those two Champions League games, however, also fostered something else. The furore around the attack on City’s bus created a genuine and growing animosity between supporters, of the type that does add emotional depth to derbies, but can reduce other elements to baser levels.

The controversy over City staff singing the “battered in the streets” chant was part of that, as have been tedious debates over authenticity, history and the correct way to celebrate. Some of this has represented a very social media-age rivalry, but that doesn't make it any less real.

The fact that both clubs last season won the major trophy the other wanted only added another twist to all this, if also serving to further illustrate their supremacy.

The destination of those trophies illustrated something else, too. City, as the league champions, are the better team - even if by the minimum of one point. But that points to something crucial to the future of this rivalry.

All evidence suggests that 95-points-plus is City’s level under Guardiola, and that they are likely to repeat it.

We don’t know if that’s the case with Liverpool. The feeling remains that they had to push themselves to the absolute limit to keep up with City. A theme of pre-season - especially since they haven’t sought to improve through a major signing - is the question of whether Liverpool can possibly sustain that level. Logic - fortified by underlying stats, analytics and base fatigue as all of their frontline have had tournament summers - suggest they will drop off significantly.

Then again, many thought similar last season. That they couldn't keep it up. That they'd eventually fall away. And yet - improbably - they kept going.

But that is also why this season’s curtain-raiser may have more significance than that. It may be important to Liverpool making a statement, and setting that pace. They can’t show they have dropped off. That would set the wrong tone.

Last season proved that, with City around, even draws are near-fatal. So Liverpool need to start with a performance that again suggests they can win almost every game.

It will similarly illustrate that this rivalry is here to stay, because Liverpool are here to stay.

It does have all the ingredients. It now has a proper recent history, which has created a spark, and proper emotion - not unlike Leeds United and Derby County in the 1970s.

It has proper philosophical differences enriching all of that, while helping create two utterly brilliant and distinctive football teams - not unlike Arsenal and United in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

It thereby has truly top-class football, of the type to match and maybe beat any previous rivalry, even if that has obviously conditioned by the far greater concentration of money at the top end of the game.

But the fact they have still pulled so far clear of the rest of the current top six means it’s not just about that, and it’s consequently become a fixture with more meaning.

It now just needs that extra fire to ignite those ingredients, to really get this cooking.

Sunday, then, could at once be a continuation of before and a start of something bigger.