Man City get early Liverpool hint ahead of FA Cup tie

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Manchester City will be studying recent Liverpool games to help them prepare but there could be lessons elsewhere

Manchester City and Liverpool meet for a third time this season when they contest an FA Cup quarter-final this Saturday. Pep Guardiola's side won home and away in the Premier League to give the club a rare double, and will be hungry to book another trip to Wembley after lifting the Carabao Cup there last month following a brilliant 2-0 win over Arsenal.

In what has been a disappointing season after their title triumph last year, Liverpool cannot afford to pick and choose their priorities as they continue in the Champions League while scrapping to qualify for next season's edition in the league. The FA Cup is their easiest route to a trophy with every team remaining just three games from glory.

There is also a narrative around Mo Salah, who announced during the international break that this will be his final season in a Liverpool shirt. They will be desperate to send off one of their greatest ever players in style, and City will have to be especially wary of someone who has proven to be their undoing before.

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Nevertheless, City will go into the game with confidence as favourites to progress, and on top of the first team games Guardiola looks at to prepare his team he may also want to look at a recent Under-21s game. City's youngsters hosted Liverpool a few weeks ago and there were a few interesting moments.

Liverpool kicked off the game with a boot for touch that is usually seen in rugby union, attempting to put the pressure on City by putting the ball out in their half and immediately pressing the home team as they looked to get it back in play. The Anfield club also gave Ben Wilkinson's side a thorough test from set-pieces, putting the young Blues under waves of pressure as they got creative with dead ball situations.

A few days later, Slot's Liverpool replicated the same kick-off in their Premier League game at Brighton. The personnel were different but the concept was exactly the same. While it is not unusual for academy teams to play in the same style as their senior side, this season has seen things step up a notch with dead ball situations either copied in youth games or tried there first.

"It was the same at Villa," said Wilkinson, whose team played there a week earlier. "I've seen it in the Premier League recently with the flick up and volley onto the backline. A lot of the trends you see in first team football you see very quickly in PL2.

"I understand why they're trying to do it, they want to put the ball in our half and put pressure on us high up the pitch. For our lads, it's good exposure to that and good experience."

Set-pieces have become more important at the top of English football this season, with Arsenal using them as a key component in their attack in a team that is on course to win the Premier League and still in the running in the FA Cup and Champions League. Liverpool have also leaned into this in the second half of the season to improve a record that was one of the worst in the league.

Guardiola admits that City spend more time than ever on set-pieces, although that still isn't thought to be very much as the manager prefers to use his time working on his priorities. The manager will have his own ideas about how to hurt Liverpool, but there may be some things hidden in the Under-21s game that could pop out at the Etihad on Saturday.