The relentless fixture list of English football has finally sunk in to Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp’s head as he sees his team suffer one injury after another that has now forced the German to sign an out of favour defender on loan, just so he has defensive cover to help his wounded side cope with their latest rash of fallen stars.
The Reds now face two tough matches against Arsenal tonight and then against Manchester United on Sunday at Anfield, and while Arsenal are on a run that sees the Gunners having won seven of their last eight games in all competitions, despite not having Francis Coquelin, Santi Cazorla and Alexis Sanchez available Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp still thinks his team have the weapons available to hurt the Gunners.
Liverpool always tends to play better against sides who try to take the game to the Reds which will certainly be the case with Arsenal tonight, as Arsene Wenger’s team knows no other way to play other than to go looking for goals.
This should play well into Klopp’s strategy which will be to employ his gegenpress that he knows gives Arsenal problems as was the case when the Gunners faced Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League.
The plan for Liverpool will be to not to allow Arsenal players to have any time on the ball by constantly harassing them high up the pitch, while at the same time trying to get forwards to exploit German defender Per Mertesacker’s lack of speed.
Goalkeeper
Belgium shot-stopper Simon Mignolet has had the worry of where he stands regarding Klopp and the future lifted off of his shoulders after the 27-year-old just signed a new £50,000 per-week that will see him remain at Anfield until 2020.
Defence
Despite all the doom and gloom surrounding Liverpool’s centre-backs, new signing Steven Caulker is available after training with the team on Monday but with Kolo Toure available and most likely Mamadou Sakho even though Klopp says he will not make a decision on the Frenchman before game time it looks as though Sakho and Toure will be the starters tonight with Caulker on the bench if needed.
Out on the wings it will be the usual pairing of Alberto Moreno and Nathanial Clyne, both of who seem to have been spared the injury course that has hampered the rest of the team. The pair were rested for the midweek FA Cup game with Exeter so should be good for the entire 90 minutes.
Midfield
This is the area where you feel the game will either be won or lost, so with that in mind we are going for Henderson, Can and Milner to harass the visitors as much as possible while trying to win the ball high up the pitch.
With no Philippe Coutinho to rely on for his creative influence it will be all down to Adam Lallana and Jordan Ibe to get the ball to lone striker Roberto Firmino.
Attack
With Christian Benteke the only available striker, we feel that Klopp will once more start Firmino as a striker and must tell the Brazilian that he needs to forget about being a number 10 and concentrate on trying to make runs behind the Gunners defence.
Conclusion
To be quite honest we feel as though Arsene Wenger’s team will be happy to come away with a share of the points, and with Liverpool not having shut out Arsenal since 2006 we think this game has goals written all over it so are backing a 2-2 draw with Bet365 at odds of 14/1.
