In their quest for a fourth consecutive Premier League championship, Manchester City are currently leading the standings.
Alan Shearer, a TV analyst, believes Liverpool’s defensive weaknesses may prevent them from competing with Manchester City for the Premier League championship this year.
Last season, Pep Guardiola and his all-star squad were given a tough fight by Arsenal before winning the title for the third year in a row. During the Covid-hit 2019–2020 season, resurrected Liverpool became the last English team other than City to hold the top spot.
This season, Arsenal and Liverpool are expected to pose the greatest dangers to City, and the fact that all three of those teams are presently ranked in the top three seems to support that expectation. Shearer does point out one reason why Jurgen Klopp’s prolific Reds might find it difficult to compete with City for the length of the match.
They are always going to score goals with the talent up top, Shearer stated on The Rest Is Football podcast when discussing the title fight with Gary Lineker and former City favourite Micah Richards. They’ll never have trouble scoring goals, but right now, I have a small fear about their defence.
They now have an injury to [Andy] Robertson, which they will have to cope with, continued Shearer, who won the Premier League with Blackburn Rovers in 1995. [Kostas] Tsimikas entered and was driven away.
“I still believe their defensive play is a little shaky. Despite some defensive concerns, they have unquestionably improved [this season] and will fight for the championship.”
Since Guardiola took over as manager of City seven years ago, they have claimed five Premier League titles. When they triumphed over Manchester United in the FA Cup final and Inter Milan in the Champions League championship game, they also secured an unprecedented treble last season.