With the CL taken care of for now, time to focus on the league and next fixture in this busy schedule. Wolves are coming into this game defeating Arsenal and 7th in the league just 4 points behind us.
There are 7 teams within 17 pts - 21 pts after 10 games, and three more teams who can achieve that, if they win their respective games in hand. Next set of games is a great chance to put some daylight between us and the others.
Gini, Robbo, Mane and Hendo would need rest at some point of time in my opinion. Think we go full strength with the available players against Wolves, since we have a redundant CL game after that. Maybe then manage the minutes for the next block of 6 games between 13th Dec and 2nd Jan.
Klopp doesn’t much/any option to shuffle the pack. I guess he will go full-throttle and hope to rest the squad for a week before the Fulham game. Keita or Milner might be a surprise inclusion, but they will make the bench.
Kelleher
Neco Fabinho Matip Robertson
Henderson Wijnaldum Jones
Salah Firmino Jota
Our squad is so bare its only a question of Matip or Phillips and jota or Firmino. This will be a real test , Neco will have to be aware of Neto coming at him constantly.
Couple of things worth noting - Jota would be playing against his former club and 2000 fans would be allowed for this one. I presume it’ll be very difficult getting tickets for this one given the ticket process and eligibility conditions?
Still can’t understand why Jon Moss officiates the entire match with a spare football tucked under his shirt.!
To remain one of life’s mysteries me thinks…
Tsimikas for Robbo isn’t ideal but has to be a consideration at this point too, Robbo is quiet literally and visibly at breaking point and a long term injury there would be a disaster.
I agree. But Klopp might be tempted to play him one more time.
We have been afforded an unusual (five days instead of 3-4 days) gap between games and knowing Robertson can be spared for the Midtjylland game (so another seven days between games), Klopp will prefer to play him.
Wolves have got with a back four in their last two, even with Conor Coady back last time out to Arsenal, and have looked far more attacking as a result. It’s unclear whether they will be so bold at Anfield.
Raul Jimenez is out for the foreseeable future after fracturing his skull in a horror collision with Arsenal’s David Luiz on Monday. Wolves don’t really have a replacement for Jimenez after selling Diogo Jota to Liverpool in the summer.
Ruben Neves has dipped in and out of the starting XI this season and may have to settle for another place on the bench here unless Nuno adds another midfielder to the side and pushes Daniel Podence through the middle as a false 9.
All that will be very interesting from their part. So far, Wolves were a tight aggressive unit. Predictable, but difficult to beat. Now, they’ve been forced to make some changes by losing a few important players, some dropping in form and importance, others emerging, etc. They can still be that, but it’s less predictable what they do as it’s only been two games in that they’ve flipped to 4 at the back. Oh and Saiss is also a doubt for this game.
I expect Wolves to sit back and try and get a point. Without Jimenez they’ve lost a major weapon (possibly their only major weapon). Maybe they go with Podence or Traore in the CF position.
We should be able to field our strongest available team and then just use a bunch of kids and reserves in Denmark.
Wolves were excellent against Arsenal after Jimenez was subbed off. They went to a front 4 of Neto, Podence and Traore behind Silva.
Personally, I don’t think Silva is up to much yet, but it’ll be interesting to see if they go with that again. It’s an incredibly quick 4 that could cause us problems.
I’d expect Neves to come back in for Silva and Podence to play up front. Shame about Saiss being out, he’s shite.
No sign of any of the walking wounded being available so we’re going to have to go with the same group of players.
Only questions are who drops out up front- I think it might be Mane - and does Fabinho play at CB or in midfield with Phillips coming back in. JK might even play him at RB.
Going to be a tight game but despite everything we’ve found a way all season. 2-1 to the mighty Reds.
