Liverpool return to Premier League action after a near two-week break with a trip to in-form Brighton tomorrow.
A match-up with the Seagulls is always an awkward proposition for any side. But with new injury issues to contend with, Jurgen Klopp won’t be looking forward to this one.
Regardless, Liverpool have to get a result. Having seen their top-four momentum halted by Brentford last time out, they need to bounce back against the team immediately below them in the table.
That task got a whole lot harder with the news that Darwin Nunez will miss Saturday’s game. Here’s how we see the Reds lining up without their Uruguayan forward.
Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty ImagesDefence
Despite his shocking error last weekend, there should be no suggestion that Alisson Becker drops out the side.
In-front of him, we expect to see an unchanged back-four, too. That means Trent Alexander-Arnold will continue in a bid to build on some excellent recent form at right-back.
Alongside Trent is likely to be Joel Matip and Ibrahima Konate. In Virgil van Dijk’s continued absence it makes sense to keep the central partnership the same.
And at left-back there’s no reason to swap Andy Robertson for Kostas Tsimikas either.
Klopp has more options available in midfield with the return of veteran James Milner to training. We don’t think he’ll use him here, though. Not from the start, anyway.
Instead, we can see the manager sticking with something more tried and tested against a strong Brighton midfield.
That should see both Thiago Alcantara and Fabinho retain their places from last week. Alongside them, Naby Keita should finally be handed a first start of the campaign after some impressive cameos of late.
Attack
This is where things start to look a little worrisome for Liverpool. Already playing with a holy midfield and a defence missing its main man, the attack has withered further now too.
Despite all his misses, Nunez was nearly always the Liverpool player looking the most dangerous in-game. Hopefully they won’t have to do without him for long. But they’ll have to do here.
As a result, picking the front three is actually very straightforward for Klopp. Mohamed Salah of course has to start and so too does new signing Cody Gakpo. Without Darwin, Gakpo should take up a central role.
So, that just leaves the left-sided spot to fill. As a result of basic deduction really, that will more than likely go to Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. To be fair to him, Ox has done OK recently. He may not be ‘unbelievable’ anymore, as he was once described by Andy Robertson but he’ll do a job. He has to, we’ve got no one else!
Liverpool’s predicted XI vs Brighton: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Konate, Robertson; Fabinho, Keita, Thiago; Salah, Gakpo, Oxlade-Chamberlain
source: https://www.rousingthekop.com/
