Manchester XI v Merseyside XI: Best combined XIs ahead of Everton v Man City and Man Utd v Liverpool
Friday 17 April 2020 15:04, UK
Who boasts the better XI - Team Manchester or Team Merseyside? We used the Sky Sports Power Rankings to find out...
Ahead of a bumper Nissan Super Sunday, when Everton host Manchester City and Liverpool travel to Manchester United, we combined the best players from Manchester and Merseyside into two squads.
Six Man Utd players and five from Man City unite to form an impressive Manchester XI, while the Merseyside squad is dominated by nine Liverpool stars to Everton's two.
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The Sky Sports Power Rankings grades all Premier League players based on their performance and for the purposes of this feature we selected the top players regardless of their availability for Sunday's fixtures...
Team Manchester
David de Gea was the clear choice over Claudio Bravo in goal, while the defence is split between Antonio Valencia and Daley Blind from United and Aleksandar Kolarov and Nicolas Otamendi from City.
Paul Pogba is joined in midfield by team-mate Ander Herrera but City dominate the attacking positions.
Raheem Sterling, Kevin De Bruyne and David Silva occupy the three places behind Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Belgium international De Bruyne is the pick of the bunch, having provided a Premier League-high nine assists to go along with two goals.
Ibrahimovic, who has scored 13 times in his debut Premier League season so far, is the top-performing player from both teams - sitting fourth in the season Power Rankings.
He leads the line instead of Sergio Aguero, who has been hampered by suspensions following a red card against Chelsea and a retrospective ban picked up from his early-season clash with West Ham defender Winston Reid.
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Team Merseyside
Despite a mixed campaign to date, Liverpool 'keeper Simon Mignolet gets the nod in goal. He's been dropped and then reinstated by Jurgen Klopp already this season, but Everton have had goalkeeper woes too.
An injury to Maarten Stekelenburg opened the door for Joel Robles but the Toffees have kept just two clean sheets since October 30.
Ashley Williams marshals the defence as one of only two Everton players in the Merseyside XI, alongside Dejan Lovren.
The two full-back spots are occupied by Nathaniel Clyne and the impressive James Milner, who has played efficiently at left-back under Klopp.
Liverpool also claim all four midfield positions and in Sadio Mane boast the Power Rankings' fifth highest rated Premier League player.
Klopp will be without the Senegal international on Sunday while he competes at the Africa Cup of Nations, but the Reds boss may be boosted by the return of Philippe Coutinho from injury.
The Brazilian, who has returned to full training following an ankle problem, features here alongside team-mates Adam Lallana and Jordan Henderson.
Romelu Lukaku partners Roberto Firmino up front.
Check out the top 50 performers in the Sky Sports season rankings below...
