FA Community Shield: Three talking points from Manchester City 6(1)-5(1) Liverpool

#2 City's midfield had a game of two halves

Roberto Firmino tussles with Rodri.

At the start of the game, Manchester City played with a midfield three of Rodri, David Silva and Kevin de Bruyne, and almost all of them were absolutely dominating in the middle especially in the first 20 minutes or so. Both de Bruyne and Silva were constantly finding pockets of space available between the Liverpool defense and midfield. While de Bruyne delivery in the box could be faulted, his efforts can't be.

Silva got the assist for City's first goal and the new signing, Rodri was pretty neat and tidy with the ball. On the other hand, Georginio Wijnaldum and Jordan Henderson were really struggling to pick up Silva and de Bruyne. Liverpool's full-backs were really struggling as well with the runs the City midfielders were making, especially Andrew Robertson.

In the second half though, City's midfield was nowhere to be found as Liverpool completely dominated them. Henderson especially was almost everywhere before he was substituted for Adam Lallana.

🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆Back-to-back #CommunityShield wins and five consecutive domestic trophies for @ManCity!https://t.co/jvgWQfpy7w

— The FA (@FA) August 4, 2019