It’s a big game at Anfield Saturday for Liverpool. After suffering a 3-1 beating courtesy of Leicester City on Monday, the Reds welcome in Arsenal for a key top-4 battle.
Liverpool can’t afford to drop many more matches if they want to earn a Champions League spot, and certainly not against a team that they are currently battling with for one of those spots.
Simon Mignolet didn’t get much help on Monday against the Foxes, with the back-four being completely exposed. There is no reason for him to lose his place in the team right now unless he gets hurt.
There is really no way around it, the Liverpool defense was awful against Leicester City. The biggest concern was in the center of the pitch, with Lucas Leiva and Joel Matip seemingly on different pages.
Go here for the Liverpool injury report
Dejan Lovren is back in training, and he should get the start over Lucas. Lovren and Matip have been the most successful center-back partnership for Liverpool this season, winning 50 percent of their matches together. Nathaniel Clyne and James Milner should also start.
Liverpool miss Jordan Henderson in the midfield, and he is expected to miss again on Saturday.
That really limits the Reds options. They will most likely run the same three out as they did on Monday, with Emre Can stepping into Henderson’s role, with Georginio Wijnaldum and Adam Lallana flanking him.
The Liverpool attack looked out of sync after two weeks off on Monday. But the trio of Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Philippe Coutinho have shown up in big games this year and ran Arsenal all over the field on opening day. Liverpool will look for them to do that again on Saturday.
GK Simon Mignolet
RB Nathaniel Clyne – CB Joel Matip – CB Dejan Lovren – LB James Milner
MF Adam Lallana – MF Emre Can – MF Georginio Wijnaldum
RW Sadio Mane – FW Roberto Firmino – LW Philippe Coutinho
As always, feel free to post your own Liverpool starting XI in the comments section below. Speak your mind on the formations and line-ups that are already presented here for your discussion.
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