Why Dominik Szoboszlai missed Liverpool’s Premier League clash against Manchester City

Liverpool will be without influential midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai for Sunday’s mouth-watering Premier League clash against Manchester City.

Man City visit Anfield on Sunday afternoon to play their first game since they were found guilty of over 100 breaches of financial rules.

An independent commission found Man City guilty of using ‘sham’ contracts and misleading accounts to disguise secret funding exceeding £800m between 2009 and 2018.

Manchester City have continued to maintain their innocence and appealed the verdict but the club’s fate remains extremely uncertain.

Enzo Maresca’s City travelled to Anfield sitting top of the Premier League, having won their opening five games before the international break.

Liverpool, meanwhile, were eighth ahead of the visit of Man City with nine points from their first five fixtures.

Anfield boss Andoni Iraola made three changes from the team that beat Bournemouth 1-0 before the international break, with Lewis Koumas making his first Premier League start.

Victor Munoz and Ryan Gravenberch also come into the side in replace of Alexander Isak, Cody Gakpo and Szoboszlai, who is out with a hamstring injury.

Iraola confirmed that Szoboszlai had a ‘tight hamstring’ and said that despite ‘trying to push through in training’ he was not ready to feature in Liverpool’s matchday squad.

Meanwhile, Maresca made one change from the Man City team that beat Sunderland 5-3 last time out, with Josko Gvardiol dropping to the bench.

Erling Haaland leads the line for the Premier League leaders after missing Norway’s final Nations League game with an injury concern.

Discussing Man City’s trip to Anfield following the guilty verdict from the Premier League, Alan Shearer said: ‘I just think it’s such a bad look that we’re still having to wait for the consequences.

‘We’ve never seen anything like this. This is the biggest thing to happen to the Premier League since it started in 1992, that’s how big it is.

‘Credibility matters and you won’t get anything different from any coach or player at Manchester City other than we’re going to stick together and we believe in the club.

‘They’re about to find out the anger from every club, starting at Anfield. The level of hostility will rise wherever they go.

‘The ramifications are endless to this case. Where it goes after is something we don’t know. It’s huge. It really is massive.’

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