Happy Halloween! Premier League match day 11 will soon be here and it sees league leading Liverpool traveling to 15th place Aston Villa on Saturday. After the Wednesday night winner on penalty kicks in the EFL Cup round of 16, over Arsenal, Reds manager Jurgen Klopp hit out at the schedule makers.
Klopp, upset about the inevitable fixture congestion that accompanies progressing in so many different competitions, said Liverpool would forfeit the League Cup if they can’t get a proper date. There are reports stating that the Reds might actually resort to fielding two completely different teams at the same time, in different competitions, on the same day.
Also, in case you missed it, here is Liverpool winger Mohamed Salah getting into the holiday spirit.
Trying my hardest to look scary? pic.twitter.com/EYyExl7pFe
— Mohamed Salah (@MoSalah) October 31, 2019
Liverpool’s opponent in the next round of the League Cup?
The same opposition they’ll face on Saturday, AVFC.
Having made 11 changes to the first team for the win over Arsenal on Wednesday night, expect 11 more changes again here. Klopp put out a team of youngsters hungry for experience in mid-week. Now he’ll go back to the normal starting lineup.
With Naby Keita expected to be fit and available for selection, the only main fitness concern is who starts in the place of long term injury absentee Joel Matip?
Dejan Lovren has played in three of the matches Matip has missed while Joe Gomez started the other two. So there has been some shuffling back and forth there as to who will be paired with Virgil van Dijk in central defense.
Liverpool FC at Aston Villa FYIs
Kickoff: Sunday Nov 2, 4 BST, Villa Park
Liverpool FC Starting XI Prediction: go to this link
Google Result Probability: Liverpool 71%, Draw 18%, Aston Villa 11%
Form Guide: Liverpool- DWWWW Aston Villa- LWWDL
Prediction: Liverpool 2, Aston Villa 1
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
You can follow Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com on Twitter here and his cat on Instagram at this link.