Pep Guardiola vows Man City will show Liverpool no mercy at Anfield

Pep Guardiola previews Liverpool

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Pep Guardiola says his Manchester City side have been “too soft” against Liverpool in recent meetings but promised they will show no mercy at Anfield on Sunday. City can deliver yet another blow to Liverpool’s fading title hopes when they tackle Jurgen Klopp’s men on Merseyside.

But if they are to do so, Guardiola says they must display a harder edge than they have in their last two clashes. City drew their last league trip at Anfield but lost the FA Cup semi-final there in April and this season’s curtain raiser in the Community Shield at Wembley.

“I had the feeling always in Anfield we have played really well,” said Guardiola. “But in other games, maybe in the last two games we were a little bit soft for different circumstances.

“You have to behave at a top level with and especially without the ball, and in being active in second balls and many, many things. You have to win duels. When they push you, you have to push. When they are there, you have to be there.”

There were mitigating factors in the FA Cup loss given City had played a gruelling extra time Champions League quarter-final second-leg against Atletico Madrid just three days before. In the Community Shield, Guardiola admitted his side were simply not up to speed for the season.

They have gathered impressive pace since in an unbeaten run of 13 games and will hit a Liverpool side who have struggled until the last week like a freight train. Plenty are writing off Liverpool’s title chances including their own manager, but Guardiola is not among them insisting the Reds remain challengers this season.

Asked whether Liverpool were City’s biggest threat, Guardiola was unequivocal. “Always has been, always it is and always will be,” he said. “I know the quality they have. If I was asked this question with five or ten games left, I will say I think Liverpool cannot catch the top of the league – in that case, Arsenal.

“But being in the position that we are, with the World Cup still to come, everything can still happen.” City’s record at Anfield is not impressive with just one win in their last 22 visits.

But they go into the contest knowing that they have dominated the last two contests there winning one and drawing the other. And they will have the Premier League’s leading scorer, the 15-goal Erling Haaland, back in the starting line-up after being rested in Copenhagen.

Liverpool will be similarly heartened by the return to form of Mo Salah who rattled in a six-minute hat-trick against Rangers at Ibrox on Wednesday. Guardiola has no doubts he will be a threat.

“This type of players always has curveballs in his career, they’re not going to score all the time sometimes they struggle a little bit because the team is not at their best,” he said. “But the quality is there. It’s not necessary to say Salah is not going to score goals anymore. We know he is always going to score, we know that.”

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