Premier League champions Manchester City and the FA Cup holders Liverpool will spook sake uit for the Community Shield at the King Power Stadium on Saturday at 6pm.
Entering the league’s ultimate pre-season showdown, Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp is well aware of the fact that he has never won the Shield.
Current holders of both the FA and League Cups, Klopp also broke a 30-year league title drought in 2020, but the Community Shield is the one that has always evaded him.
The last of Liverpool’s 15 Shield wins was in 2006 - pre-Klopp, while his opposite number Pep Guardiola is responsible for two of City’s six Shield wins - in 2018 and 2019.
So while it will be a friendly before the league starts next week, it will be personal for Klopp.
He says of the game: “It’s very important.
“It’s the last of the domestic trophies that we haven’t won, so we’ll give it a go.”
Here's a summary of Jürgen's pre-FA Community Shield press conference 👇 #LIVMCI
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) July 28, 2022
Making dinge moeilik for the German is the fact that he’ll be without first-choice goalkeeper Alisson.
With Guardiola promising to unleash his new attacking stars Erling Haaland and Julian Alvarez, Klopp will hope his attack which includes club record-signing Darwin Nunez will fire at the other end of the pitch.
Guardiola, meanwhile, doesn’t expect there to be hiccups with his much-changed side this season and says: “So far I am so excited and so happy.
“New players have come and we continue with them.”
While Saturday’s match might be deemed a friendly, it will go a long way in determining who wins the first mental blow as the ball gets rolling in the 2022/23 season.