Pep has cards that only Salah can trump

 City’s rebuild is more advanced than Liverpool’s, but don’t rule out Salah in the big game.

Another Man City-Liverpool blockbuster?

No longer a title decider, this fixture always has a lot riding on it, and Saturday’s FA Cup quarter-final (7.45pm in Malaysia) is no exception.

It also offers one of the last looks at an all-time great in a big game, as Mo Salah has recovered from a minor muscle injury.

He could also be Liverpool’s trump card.

Despite the season’s disappointments, either team can still win a Double, and either manager could still leave at the end of it.

One by his own volition, the other only if FSG suddenly starts acting like Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis, who, last time we checked, is on his fourth of the season.

Despite a loud minority calling for Arne Slot’s head, it is unlikely to happen unless Liverpool ends up with nothing.

He won the title by 10 points in his first season, and that is a lot of credit in the bank.

As it is, the Reds are still in contention for both the FA Cup and Champions League, and it is they, not City, who will go into this game with half an eye on a big European game to follow.

They don’t come much bigger than Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) in Paris, also in a quarter-final, and this, not the FA Cup, will be their priority.

With Jeremie Frimpong joining Alisson and Federico Chiesa on Liverpool’s treatment table, Slot will have to juggle his resources yet again.

Still, he would be advised not to send the kids out in a tame surrender.

He knows the Reds have more chance of winning this trophy than of lifting Old Big Ears for a seventh time.

A stellar line-up of Bayern, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Arsenal and Sporting stands in his way in Europe.

Compare that lot to Arsenal, Chelsea, West Ham, Leeds, Southampton and Port Vale, who are left in the domestic trophy.

A win over City would not only make them the second favourites (behind Arsenal) for the Cup, it might also help them secure a Champions League spot for next season.

Mo Salah should be back after missing last week’s dispiriting loss at Brighton. And if anyone can spark a storming finish to the EPL campaign, he can.

Saturday will be his first EPL appearance since announcing his departure at the end of the season, and he’ll want to bow out in a blaze of glory.

No one expects a reprise of arguably his greatest goal against City at Anfield in 2022, but more of the form he showed late on against Galatasaray would do.

Up against him will be a makeshift full-back, whoever Pep chooses.

Whether he opts for Rayan Ait-Nouri, Nathan Ake or Nico O’Reilly, none are left-backs of the classic mould and could be a weak link.

Ait-Nour is more of a wingback, Ake a centreback and O’Reilly a midfielder so this route could be Liverpool’s best bet.

But Salah apart, more than usual when these two meet, it looks like “advantage City”.

Besides being able to focus solely on this game, they already have Wembley in their nostrils after their Carabao Cup triumph over Arsenal.

They are at home and have beaten Liverpool in both EPL games this season.

The more recent game was when a last-minute penalty by Erling Haaland decided it after Dominik Szoboszlai was sent off for tugging his shirt.

Earlier in the season, Jeremy Doku stole the show in a 3-0 win at the Etihad.

Like Liverpool, City has been bedding in new signings and has done so with more success than the Reds.

Rayan Cherki, at £80m less than what Liverpool paid for Florian Wirtz, has been the pick, with Antoine Semenyo not far behind.

Gianluigi Donnarumma is among the top five keepers in the world, while, under the radar, Abdukodir Khusanov, is fast developing into an automatic choice at centreback. He cost just £33m from Lens.

The Uzbek was voted City’s Player of the Month for March.

Overall, Pep’s signings have settled in faster and looked far better value than Liverpool’s – and at half the cost.

And that’s without comparing their respective Scandinavian strikers.

The news that a £125m record signing has returned to training does not provide the boost you would normally expect.

Alexander Isak has recovered from a broken leg and hopes to put a bit of much-needed gloss on a campaign that could hardly have gone worse.

Kopites will hope that Slot has figured out how he’s going to fit the Swede in.

Erling Haaland began like a train, scoring for fun and leading Norway to World Cup qualification.

However, the goals have mysteriously dried up.

Talk of burnout seems strange for a player who sometimes has fewer than 20 touches a match, but he’s already achieved far more than his Swedish counterpart.

Whereas we still don’t know what we’re getting with Liverpool this season, Pep appears well on the way to building a third great City side.

The Catalan, of course, will decide his own future. He has a year left on his contract and is never going to be sacked by his buddies in the hierarchy.

If he thinks this squad can win another title next season, he may well stay on.

Next Sunday, he has Chelsea away and then Arsenal visit the Etihad. He loves these big games and will relish Liverpool’s visit on Saturday.

City are favourites, but let’s hope it’s a game worthy of the two best clubs of the Twenty-twenties so far. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.