Of all of these weekends’ matches none could generate as much excitement as Liverpool’s trip to White Hart Lane.
Both teams play an attractive style of football which is entertaining to watch even for a neutral, but this afternoon’s early kick-off comes with the benefit of seeing new Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp in the dugout as fans eagerly await to see what changes the German will make to the team Brendan Rodger’s.
The 48-year-old former Borussia Dortmund trainer knows that his team is not far off a Champions League spot and that a win today would take the Reds not only above Spurs in the table but Merseyside rivals Everton as well.
Klopp has gone on the record to say that he will not be making any radical changes in the beginning, yet we can’t help feel that there may be a surprise or two up his sleeve as he hopes to become only the second manager in the Premier League era to win his first game in charge.
Here is our take on what is sure to be a highly scrutinized starting XI. 4-3-2-1.
Lucas to play in place of the injured Henderson as a holding midfielder.
Goalkeeper
No surprises here with Belgium Simon Mignolet between the posts as he has been all season, but with talk already linking Klopp with a January transfer of Bayer Leverkusen goalkeeper Bernd Leno, or Loris Karius of Mainz 05 the pressure is well and truly on Mignolet if he is to have any chance of retaining his No.1 role at Anfield.
Defence
No real surprises in store here with both Nathaniel Clyne and Alberto Moreno starting at right and left backs with Martin Skrtel and Mamadou Sakho the obvious choice for the German to play at centre-back.
Midfield
Here just like he predecessor Brendan Rodger’s Klopp will be looking to crowd the centre of the park playing Lucas Leiva as the holding midfielder with Emre Can to his left for as long as team captain Jordan Henderson is out injured. When Henderson returns it could spell some time on the bench for Lucas as we expect to see Klopp play Can in the position the Brazilian occupies now.
James Milner is a given in any Klopp team given the Germans work ethic as statistics show he puts in more kilometres per-match than any other Liverpool player.
Many people will expect to see Philippe Coutinho play a more central role, but given Klopp’s injury list we expect to see him play out wide on the left which will allow him to cut in and hopefully get a few shots off with that magic right-foot.
Adam Lallana will start on the right and has a lot to prove as his style of play is not suited to Klopp’s high energy game as he said himself “full throttle football”.
Attack
With both Christian Benteke missing and Danny Ings now disappointingly out for the season it will be up to Daniel Sturridge to provide the magic we all know he is capable off, and given the fact it will be his first match to impress Klopp we would take a punt on Sturridge to score anytime at odds of 6/4 with BET365.
