Adam Sadler’s men recorded an impressive 1-0 away win at Middlesbrough last Saturday – a goal from Jose Angel Pozo settling matters.
City’s boss believes that the exciting Spaniard was the difference between the teams on the day.
“It looked like it was going to be one of those games where it needed an individual to step forward and produce something special and Jose did that for us today,” said the manager.
“The missed penalty could have knocked a weaker man but he continued with that incredible desire that he has and harried defenders so that when the opportunity came, he was the difference on the day.”
It remains to be seen whether Sadler will field Pozo against the Merseysiders after he played 30 minutes for the EDS in their NextGen Series defeat to PSG on Thursday.
Unused substitutes on that night, Billy O’Brien, Louis Hutton and Devante Cole are all expected to face Liverpool.
This highlights one of the trickier aspects of Sadler’s jobs as many of his players are training at Carrington rather than Platt Lane during the week.
Two outstanding saves from goalkeeper Ian Lawlor kept City’s lead intact on Saturday as Middlesbrough finished the game strongly.
We do expect difficult moments in matches as we don’t get access to the players all week, so it’s not easy to bring them together on the Friday for all the match preparation that they need.
...Adam Sadler...
City come up against a free-scoring Liverpool side that have drawn both their opening league games against Wolves and Crystal Palace 3-3.
With this in mind, Sadler is keen to ensure that his men are organised when the visitors are in possession.
“We know we have game winners in the team who will create the chances for us to win football matches but we need to be more organised when we don’t have the ball.”
You can follow live goal updates from 11am on Saturday over on the Official Manchester City Twitter account, as well as a full match report after full-time, with highlights to follow on Thursday.
