The next version of the biggest match of the year.
With the team in good form and fitness (despite finally picking up an injury in the form of a sprained ankle for Diogo Jota), the momentum leads to more optimism from me that the Premier League title race is not quite over. Sure, we need to be just about perfect from here until the end, and that’s highly unlikely. And, even if we’re perfect, there’s some possibility that won’t be enough. Nonetheless, with the team playing the way it is, all things feel possible.
Which makes tomorrow a critical game. THE game. The most important match of the year. Until we get to the next match.
Norwich City may well be the easiest opponent the Reds will face in the remainder of this Premier League season (and we also get to face them in the next round of the FA Cup in a week and a half). Norwich have scored only 14 PL goals all season — two less than Mo Salah. This match gives Klopp a good opportunity to rest some key players, but I don’t think our players or manager will either be taking it easy or likely to lose focus. I believe the current competition within the squad, along with the hope of winning four trophies, will push the concentration levels of this team to the crazy heights that they reached during the year and a half they were nearly invincible — from the fall of 2018 through the first part of 2020. You can feel it. They smell something cooking, and they LIKE it.
We should smother the life out of Norwich. So long as we can find a few finishes, the score line should be quite comfortable.
Guess at a lineup:
I think there’s some chance Trent could be rested, in which case Milner is his most likely replacement. Curtis Jones, Milner, and Fabinho all have a decent chance to start in the midfield, although I think Hendo and Keïta are highly likely to be in the lineup. I’d be pretty surprised if either Thiago or Elliott started this one. Salah may start EVERY game (I really hope he won’t, but I think he really wants to). If Salah starts, I’d like to see either him or Mané playing in the center, with Díaz on the left. I expect something like that to be done at some point over the coming weeks.
Jota will probably be out for a few weeks, although Klopp is currently taking the position that he’s still potentially in contention to play in the League Cup final next Sunday. I think that’s pretty unlikely.
Up the Mighty Reds! And, up Tottenham Hotspur, who travel to the Etihad tomorrow. May the Force be with them.
LFC 4 – Norwich City 0
