Manchester City hit the ground running with Community Shield win

In a clash of English football’s titans, Manchester City emerged victorious over Liverpool on penalties in a hotly contested Community Shield to kick off the 2019-2020 season.

While it was far from a truly convincing performance, Pep Guardiola’s City once again held their nerve at Wembley to claim their first trophy of the season by defending their Community Shield title after a shootout victory following a 1-1 draw.

There was something truly special about this season’s curtain-raiser for the forthcoming Premier League season, which possessed the energy of a truly competitive fixture, a true testament to the rivalry between England’s two best sides.

From a City perspective, the Blues looked solid in the first half, taking advantage of a high Liverpool line for Raheem Sterling to sneak the ball past Alisson off a brilliant David Silva flick to give City their only goal of the match.

In the first half, City dominated possession of the ball and created several chances, but the rust of preseason showed as City were nowhere near the clinically finishing side they will expect to be this season.

On the other hand, City were dominated in the second half, nearly conceding several times before Joel Matip ultimately equalized for Liverpool. The defense looked extremely vulnerable without Aymeric Laporte, with center-back looking to still be an area of massive concern heading into the season.

Moreover, star German winger Leroy Sané limped off injured early in the match with an apparent knee injury, which could throw a wrench into his heavily discussed potential move to Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich. 

Record-signing Rodri struggled at times with his passing and first touch, but overall looked the part to eventually replace Fernandinho against one of world football’s absolute best attacks. On the day, Kevin de Bruyne showed flashes of brilliance but his final product was not quite in mid-season form, while Claudio Bravo perhaps put in the standout performance of the evening in goal.

The Chilean goalkeeper bailed City out of numerous defensive mishaps and came up huge with the decisive save in the shootout to help the Blues win the Shield for the second consecutive season.

There were several warning signs from a defensive perspective throughout the match, as City’s defense looked absolutely outclassed by the likes of Mohamed Salah. The partnership of John Stones and Nicolás Otamendi proved once again to be error-prone, while Alex Zinchenko had a difficult time as City’s goal was absolutely peppered by Liverpool in the second half.

If the Citizens don’t strengthen in defense in the transfer window’s final week, it will take a massive campaign from Laporte to repeat the success of last season. While City should undoubtedly be considered as one of European football’s absolute best sides, there remains serious doubt over whether or not they have the quality at the back required to win tight matches in the latter stages of the Champions League.

While winning the Community Shield over the main challengers to City’s quest for a third consecutive Premier League title is a great result to kick off the new season, the performance itself raised several key questions that Guardiola’s men will need to answer in order to repeat their success. This was far from a vintage Manchester City performance, and while that can easily be chalked up to the summer layoff, there will need to be a stark improvement as the start of a new season approaches.