Jürgen Klopp hammers the message into his troops that the NEXT game is the most important of the season. For probably the only time since I’ve started watching Liverpool, that message actually feels close to accurate from the big-picture perspective of an LFC fan.
The Reds are still competing on four fronts, and they are hungry for trophies. For the moment, they are also fit as a fiddle. Henderson has a minor back issue (although you might argue that no “back issue” can be considered “minor”) that Klopp says will not keep him out for long. African Cup of Nations champion and “Man of the Tournament” Sadio Mané is set to arrive back in Liverpool tonight (probably already there), and has not trained ahead of tomorrow’s match. By contrast, fellow AFCON finalist Mo Salah arrived in Liverpool the day after losing the final, and was in training on Tuesday. Salah has made it plain that he very much wants to play against Leicester tomorrow, despite the fact that he played 120 minutes for Egypt FOUR TIMES over the last two weeks. Mo Salah is a machine, and a man possessed.
Despite the fright when Luis Díaz went down clutching his knee on Sunday, he is fine. So is everyone else.
With four competitions still in play, the games will come often, and lots of players should get some chances to play. To try to guess Klopp’s lineup with this embarrassment of riches at his disposal, we need to start with the Inter Milan away match next week in the Champions League. Inter was possibly the toughest draw the Reds could have gotten in the Round of 16, and Klopp will want his strongest team starting in Milan on Wednesday. We THINK we know who Klopp considers his strongest XI:
At this point, there’s little debate about the back five or Fabinho. Thiago has been amazing this season, and it’s hard to kick out skipper Henderson. One could arguably replace Jota with Firmino, but there’s no doubt that Diogo has had the better season to date. In midfield, Harvey Elliott may be Hendo’s strongest competition. He offers an attacking threat from midfield that is arguably more potent than anyone else in the squad can offer. On the other side, I think Thiago’s spot is more secure. His primary backup is probably Naby Keïta, who plays both the right-sided and left-sided midfield roles. After that, the next candidate is Curtis Jones. Oxlade-Chamberlain and Milner make up the trailing pack, I believe (Milner primarily on the left, and AOC primarily on the right).
If we assume that the starting 11 against Inter looks something like the group above, then it becomes slightly easier to predict the lineups for the next two games. LFC plays tomorrow against Leicester at Anfield and then travels to Burnley for another PL match on Sunday. I expect LFC to start mostly first 11 players against both Leicester and Inter, while mixing in some rotational starters on Sunday against Burnley.
Against Burnley, my current guess (which I reserve the right to change):
And that leaves us with tomorrow. With Henderson probably out, the door is wide open for Elliott to retake the starting spot that he held for the first four matches of the season. Thiago may or may not be fit enough to start, but I’m going to guess that he plays the first 60 minutes or so tomorrow. If not, I would expect Curtis Jones or Keïta on the left of central midfield.
We again face a Leicester City team that has been struggling. Last time, just a few weeks ago in December, Leicester recovered against the Reds and sneaked away from the King Power Stadium with all three points. They benefited from a host of missed LFC chances in the first half, including a rare penalty miss from Mo Salah. Then Leicester dominated much of the second half and won 1-0.
Now, Leicester is coming off of a 4-1 loss to Nottingham Forest (currently the 6th-placed team in the Championship) in the FA Cup. Afterward, manager Brendan Rodgers badmouthed his team, saying that the game showed “why a lot of these players are not top players.” Rodgers said the match was “embarrassing,” and accused his team of a lack of hunger.
Leicester had a slew of postponed matches in December and January. They played only two Premier League matches in January – losing to Tottenham and drawing against Brighton. The last time Leicester City won in the Premier League was Dec. 28 — against Liverpool.
Leicester will come at Liverpool as they always do: with a mid-block press and a very quick counterattack, led by Liverpool-killer Jamie Vardy. Leicester have some gifted midfielders, including Wilfried Ndidi, Youri Tielemans, and James Maddison. Their backline includes talented, vampiric, triple-umlauted CB Çaglar Söyüncü. In addition to Vardy, their attackers include the very quick youngster Patson Daka, along with the swift and talented Harvey Barnes. They’ve got a lot of weapons. But, this season, the team has been extremely inconsistent and unreliable. They currently sit in a lowly 12th-placed slot in the Premier League, although they have played fewer games than several of the teams just above them.
But the Reds are primed and ready. Mo Salah is foaming at the mouth after losing the final in Cameroon. VVD is starting to show signs of being back to somewhere near his best. Trent Alexander-Arnold is purring, and Andy Robertson is quietly keeping pace with him on the assists front. Most significantly for me, Thiago is back, and he can play alongside Fabinho. That pair are still perfect together (not just figuratively — LFC have won every match that the two of them have started, apart from the draw against Everton in Thiago’s very first appearance). Wunderkid Harvey Elliott provides a tactical spark on the right side that we have missed.
We are READY. The Reds’ locker room will be pushing to win four trophies. And these men believe they can do it.
I thought the Reds would slaughter Leicester the last time around. Perhaps it’s a bad omen that I think the same thing this time around. But hopefully not.
LFC 4 – Leicester City 0
