Jurgen Klopp has played down concerns over Liverpool's poor pre-season preparations and attributed the results to being without six of his key players.
The Reds fell to a 3-0 defeat against Napoli on Sunday, and delivered a notably below-par showing against the side they had beaten in the Champions League group stages on their journey to winning the competition.
But the German boss admitted he wasn't reading too much into his side's recent misfortunes.
'I have never had to work a pre-season without six players. It's strange,' Klopp said. 'The best news is that City have no clue who they're facing as we don't know our line-up ourselves!'
Liverpool often looked bereft of ideas against their Italian opponents, and it wasn't until moments before the full-time whistle that the Reds came close to scoring through Harry Wilson's long-range effort.
A minor consolation from the friendly clash came in the form of the imminent return of some important members of Klopp's ranks.
He added: 'Shaqiri and Keita have trained once with us today. They'll join Salah, Alisson and Firmino tomorrow. That's five of six back which is great.'