Liverpool legend Steve Nicol believes Manchester City are not as sharp as they once were going forward, ahead of the Reds' trip to the Etihad Stadium on Thursday evening.

Manchester City ended a run of back-to-back defeats in the Premier League after their 3-1 win over Southampton at St Mary’s Stadium on Sunday and are now preparing for a crunch match against Liverpool.




The defending champions endured a difficult run in December after suffering three defeats in their last four league games, prior to the trip to the south coast, but were eventually able to get back to winning ways.

However, Pep Guardiola’s men were made to sweat for a while when Pierre Emile-Hjojberg gave the hosts a lifeline by netting an equaliser.
 


Despite conceding the goal, Manchester City established a two-goal cushion before the interval courtesy of an own goal from James Ward-Prowse and then, Sergio Aguero.

The result mattered more than the performance for Manchester City, but Nicol does not believe that the Citizens are as big a threat to Liverpool as they would have been last season.
 

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Nicol thinks that they are not able to blow teams away as much and are not cutting defences apart.

“I don’t think they are as sharp going forward as we know they can be”, Nicol said on ESPN FC.

“Last season, in the Premier League, they blew everybody away with their attacking prowess.

“Whether it was putting the ball in the back of the net or cutting teams up, they don’t seem to be cutting teams up.

“I guess a lot of that has got to do with recently not having David Silva and certainly not having Aguero at 100 per cent, those two guys are key for them.

“But, I don’t remember them ever this season playing against a side and just having their way with them, just cutting through them easily, going around the outside, little one-twos in and around the box, it just hasn’t been there this year so I think that is still a problem.

“You add that to the problems defensively, then you are in trouble.”

Manchester City will be hoping to be ruthless in front of goal against Liverpool and may need to be as Jurgen Klopp's men have conceded just eight goals in the league so far.