Haaland and Nunez have the potential to reshape City, Liverpool and the Premier League title race

This weekend's Community Shield sees the new English domestic season begin as the last one ended, with Manchester City and Liverpool battling it out.

City propelled Liverpool to the Premier League title, but the Reds got the better of Pep Guardiola's men in their FA Cup semi-final, beating Chelsea in the final and booking their place in Saturday's curtain-raiser.

These two should lead the way again in 2022-23, but a lot has changed in their ranks since their last action, especially in attack.

At the Etihad Stadium, Gabriel Jesus and Raheem Sterling left to be replaced by Erling Haaland and Julian Alvarez.

With perhaps the Premier League's most notable arrival of Haaland in this close season, Liverpool have responded with their own big man up front; Darwin Nunez was signed from Benfica to be flanked by returning Mohamed Salah, but Sadio Mane left.

After several successful years at the forefront of English football, Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp look set to reshape their squads around their latest purchases.

The two managers lined up last season mostly without a traditional number nine.

Jesus could return to that role after joining Arsenal, but City's only centre-forward has often played from the right in 2021-22, taking just 16.0% of his Premier League touches from inside the box .

Haaland, on the other hand, took 20.7% of his Bundesliga touches inside the Borussia Dortmund box last season, which explains how 96.3% of his shots came from inside the box - a far higher share than that of any striker who has played for City or Liverpool.

That mark comfortably tops Nunez's (74.1% of shots from the box), but the 23-year-old also brings something new to a Reds side that have often fielded a false nine down the middle.< /p >

Roberto Firmino has long been that man and took just 9.5% of his touches in the box last season. Nunez took a whopping 24.5% of his throw-ins in Primeira Liga from within 18 yards of goal.

Staying in such positions so consistently helped boost both Haaland's (27.5%) and Nunez's (30.6%) shot conversion rates, although both still outperformed impressive their expected goal totals (xG); Haaland scored 22 from an xG of 18.5, while Nunez netted 26 from an xG of 18.4.

In fact, the numbers suggest that Divock Origi was the only player from the Premier League's top two sides to play in a manner similar to what one would now expect from the superstar duo.

Origi, who left Liverpool for Milan, took 21.7% of his touches in the box, and his on-sight policy saw a goal attempt every 6.9 touches (9.3 for Haaland , 9.8 for Nunez).

Still, it was perhaps as much about Origi's role as Liverpool's specialist lifesaver as anything else; he made just seven appearances, all from the bench for a combined 126 minutes, but scored three goals, converting 30.0% of his shots.

During his time under Klopp, when sometimes asked to play wide, Origi's stats were more in line with those of his former teammates. Only 13.3% of his touches landed in the box, only 68.9% of his shots came from the same distance, and those attempts landed every 16.4 touches on average.

Perhaps Klopp will also ask Nunez to widen and stretch the game, maintaining the fluid forward line that has seen winger Mane increasingly used in the middle in big games.

That shouldn't necessarily hamper Nunez's hopes of scoring regularly; Salah could afford to slightly underperform his xG (23.8) and still hit 23 times in the league last season, playing from the right but taking 19.6% of his touches in the box and only needing 12.4 on average to attempt a shot.

Before last season, Guardiola had at least been able to bring into City the kind of penalty striker he signed at Haaland.

Sergio Aguero has averaged one shot per 10.0 touches under Pep, with 17.8% of his touches over five seasons inside the box.

And Haaland also brings more to his game, if only because of his size. The 1.94m former Dortmund man has won 57.6 per cent of his aerial duels in 2021-22 - no City or Liverpool striker has won more than half of them, with Nunez also trailing with 40.6%.

But perhaps the former Guardiola player whose profile most closely resembles Haaland's is Zlatan Ibrahimovic - and his Barcelona career hasn't been Pep's greatest achievement.

Just as City will have to adapt to Haaland - perhaps allowing him to compete aerially from a few of their trademark downsized crossovers - he will do so for them too. The striker completed just 71.3% of his passes in the league last season. that level of lax bonding is unlikely to wash over Guardiola's side, as Jesus (84.8%), Sterling (85.4%) and Riyad Ma...