The parallels are eerily similar.
When Manchester City defended their Premier League title in 2018/19, they had to do so for most of the season without talisman Kevin De Bruyne. A year later, having successfully retained the title, City had lost influential captain Vincent Kompany and a long-term injury to Aymeric Laporte was a key factor in the failure to win the league for a third year in a row.
Of course, Liverpool's brilliance last season would have made it incredibly difficult for City to keep up, even if they had been at full strength. Part of that incredible run from Jurgen Klopp's men was built from a solid defensive unit led by Virgil Van Dijk.
This season, Van Dijk is unfortunately out for much of the season, and was this week joined on the long-term injury list by centre-back partner Joe Gomez.
As Pep Guardiola himself has said, City would prefer for Van Dijk (and now Gomez) to be fit and playing, for the good of the Premier League. The recent meeting between the sides was poorer for Van Dijk's absence.
City have had their own injury concerns this season, but none as important or long-term as Liverpool's new crisis. But that's not to say City haven't gone through a similar dilemma, and Liverpool can learn from how Guardiola dealt with Laporte and De Bruyne's absences in recent years.
First, when De Bruyne was absent in 2018/19, Guardiola was able to rotate his fit midfielders and adapt City's approach to suit the players he had. There is no use trying to get a player like Bernardo Silva or Ilkay Gundogan to play like De Bruyne, but Guardiola managed to adapt a system to the players he had.
A year later, that was more difficult when Laporte was injured, and the situation wasn't helped by further injuries to the likes of John Stones and Nicolas Otamendi.
As it happened, Fernandinho proved to be the stable presence required at the back, and Liverpool have an equivalent in Fabinho. When he returns from his own injury, a long-term move back to defence will offer Liverpool some consistency at the back, just as compatriot Fernandinho did at the Etihad.
Then, Guardiola relied more and more on youngster Eric Garcia, with Nat Phillips seemingly an equivalent talented youngster in the Anfield ranks who impressed when stepping up before the international break. With Joel Matip capable as well, Liverpool have a defence capable of covering the absence of their first-choice pairing.
Liverpool wouldn't need any further encouragement to try and focus more on attack to take the pressure off the defence, as City did on occasions, but one thing they will benefit from more than anything is a consistent formation and approach to give the new-look back line time to gel.
Then there are the lessons Liverpool can take from what City didn't do last season - dip into the January transfer market.
City, with Aymeric Laporte coming back towards the end of January, opted against signing a Kompany replacement in the winter transfer window. Liverpool might see a benefit of signing a centre-back specialist - potentially ahead of schedule - to provide some fresh legs and quality at the back. By the time Laporte was back, the league was gone for City - and Liverpool won't want that to happen themselves this year.
After all, this is a brilliant squad with a brilliant manager, who don't deserve for their title defence to be defined by two incredibly unfortunate injuries. Likewise, if City are to win the title back, they will want to do it by beating the best quality opponent.
It's in the best interests for everyone in the Premier League for Liverpool to be as strong as possible given the circumstances - and they could do so by learning from the lessons City have dealt with over the last two years.
