Yes, it’s early. But I needed to do something to distract/calm myself. Our form over the last 10 games is WWWWWWDDLD; but if you look closely, we have been patchy since thrashing the Bitters. Those wins against Wolves and Villa were rather fortuitous, while we were pitiful against Spurs, Leicester, and tonight against Chelsea. Arsenal in their last 10 games is LWLLWWWWWL.
Alisson, Matip, Firmino is out with COVID while Nat, Thiago, and Origi are injured and Naby, Mane, and Salah are off to AFCON. Fortunately, we have a deep squad this season. Unfortunately, we aren’t the Mentality Monsters anymore, and there lies the root of all evils (aside from the fuckwits with a whistle). But being a deluded person, I envision a 5-0 win for the Mighty Reds. I feel the Magic of the Cup and fringe/young players rising to the occasion.
I’m not a big fan of speculating lineups in the match-day thread, but what the hell, eh? Kelleher is the obvious choice in the goal. Trent should be dropped, but I feel Klopp/ Lijnders might stick with him. Konate and VVD should be the CB pair but Gomez might replace VVD; and while it’s unfair to Tsimikas, I feel Robertson will return after serving his suspension.
Fabinho hasn’t played much, 56% of the available minutes, so he should be drafted in and it should be either Curtis or Milner alongside Ox. However, considering we have only two attackers available at the moment, Curtis might be pushed further up-field with Milner in the midfield.
Minamino might be available for this, we got Jones back, No news on Origi since that bang on the knee in the win v Milan, Neco, Gomez , Ox should all be starting, oh and Andy is back.
I am all about the cup juju so if we don’t win I’m gonna blame it on the thread not calling this the kangaroo Cup.
Should be an entertaining game. They are quite decent and we’re gonna be missing a chunk of our first team. Hopefully div and minanino are around, I know ox has had a decent season but he’s much better in midfield than as kne of the front three.
Play the best team we can with whoever available and then kids for the Shrewsbury game
I think the Premier League is almost done, so this becomes more important than usual I would say. We should try to win at least one title this season although this is the lesser of all of them apart the Charity Shield, it is still a cup title and we should field our best team if possible.
The midfielder is currently dealing with a hip issue.
Jürgen Klopp on December 31: “Thiago, not yet. It means for him, it might take a little bit longer. It’s a hip issue which we don’t have an idea where it’s coming from, so we have to be a little bit patient with that.”
Takumi Minamino
Minamino sat out the defeat at Leicester City on December 28 with minor muscle soreness.
Jürgen Klopp on December 31: “I would say Taki is probably closer, he is running outside.”
I think we mix and match a bit, wouldn’t play the kids against Shrewsbury but these next three now have more importance than the game that follows in my view.
I think we’ve got the quality in rotation, the forward line is the issue, who knows where Origi is.
We’ve got two cup games, which we should be using to get our newly jigged forward line/formation/personnel time to gel.
I’m not totally bothered about the result - the main aim should be to get some rhythm and understanding. And as usual, just when the backup options need to take centre stage, they are out with various issues (Origi and Taki). Curtis Jones and Ox coming on up top against Chelsea may point the direction that Klopp is thinking, along with Jota coming off early to manage his minutes.
Arsenal have a young talented team that will continue all season to blow hot and cold. Win a few games, then have a bad patch of games.
