2.8 million Euros. From the club’s perspective, that’s the carrot. That’s what clubs earn every time they win a group stage match this season in the Champions League.
Win both of the remaining two group stage matches, and those two wins would pay nearly all of Sadio Mané’s wages for the season (or, take your pick from paying the wages of all but 11 of LFC’s other players).
The way FSG structures player contracts with lots of bonuses, I suspect that many of the players also have financial incentives to secure additional CL wins and/or goals, assists, saves, clean sheets, appearances, etc. So, that’s another set of carrots.
Finally, from the manager on down, there’s a fierce level of competitiveness in this squad. They want to win. They will be proud of being the first LFC team to win the first four group stage matches, but I bet they want to finish it off by winning all six. And, this is the Champions League. This is the biggest stage in all of club football. The players all want to shine on this stage. So, that’s another bunch of carrots.
Now for the stick. Last season, LFC had a “dead rubber” (i.e., meaningless) CL match against FC Midtjylland. Diogo Jota played, got hurt, and didn’t play again for three months.
Right now, half of LFC’s senior central midfielders are potentially unavailable, and LFC are embarking on the most grinding portion of the season. Over the next 39 days — from now until Jan. 2 — LFC will play 12 times. The Grinder is open for business.
All of this makes the lineup for today’s match very difficult to predict. For his part, Jürgen Klopp has sent mixed signals on this front. On the one hand, he bristled when the issue of Jota’s injury last season came up: “It’s really easy to sit there and judge us in these moments and say, ‘leave him out.’ We don’t have enough players for that by the way,” Klopp said.
“The Jota situation was very unlucky and I hated it, I hated it but would I make the decision the same would be the only question I have to answer. Yes, because you need stability.” On the other hand, Klopp emphasized that rotation is necessary. While stressing that LFC will always “respect the competition,” he also added that his lineup decisions today will be guided by thinking “about our players and our schedule first.”
Finally, an additional lineup hint came from the selection of the player assigned to answer questions at the press conference (the Champions League media set up requires the manager plus one player to attend the pre-match presser): Thiago Alcântara.
In addition to the injuries to midfielders Elliott (broken leg), Keïta (hamstring), Jones (eye), and Milner (hamstring) (though Millie should make the bench for this one), LFC will also be without Firmino (hamstring) and Joe Gomez (calf) for today. Meanwhile, Robertson (hamstring) and Henderson (hamstring) both had minor issues over the international break. They have both been in training (and Henderson played as a substitute on Saturday), but Klopp specifically mentioned in the press conference that he wasn’t certain that either Henderson or Robertson should be starting today. Origi was out with illness on Saturday, but he’s been in training this week.
With that information in hand, plus the knowledge that both Matip and Konaté have played all of their minutes this season at the RIGHT center back position, here’s my guess at a lineup:
If this really is the team, then many fans will be upset that Salah and VVD have been risked. And, on some level I agree with that sentiment. But, with five subs available, I expect that there will be some platooning. I would guess that Salah may play only half of the game, and that Mané or Jota could replace him (or — less likely — one of those two could start, and Mo might play the second half). I would also expect that VVD will play no more than half of the game, and that Nat Phillips would play the other half. Fabinho could also be platooned with one of the mids. Milner will almost certainly come on at some point during the second half, and probably Hendo as well. It would be surprising for either Thiago or Oxlade-Chamberlain to complete the full 90 minutes. In any event, Klopp will probably have the subs planned before the match, and is likely to alter that plan only if injury during the match demands it.
As for the match? Who knows. Anfield will be relatively lively for a CL match, even though it’s a meaningless one. Porto has a ton to play for, and they are a good team, despite the fact that we crushed them in Portugal.
My guess:
LFC 1 – Porto 1
