All five of City’s senior centre-backs made it out of the World Cup Group Stage, but it’s hard to see Pep subjecting any academy players to Liverpool’s sharks. Though he may not play too many domestic cup games throughout his City career, Erling Haaland is another logical choice up top, with Julian Alvarez presumably still celebrating his World Cup victory for quite some time yet. Starting XI: Stefan Ortega; Rico Lewis, Nathan Ake, Manuel Akanji, Sergio Gomez; Rodri, Ilkay Gundogan, Kevin De Bruyne; Cole Palmer, Riyad Mahrez, Erling Haaland.