Sky Sports football pundit and former Liverpool player Phil Thompson is predicting his old club to beat Chelsea despite the Blues being the bookies favourites at 3/1.
Chelsea let a two goal lead slip at the weekend to lose 4-2 and get knocked out of the FA Cup by lowly Bradford City, and Thompson fears a backlash from Chelsea following their embarrassing defeat.
“Liverpool seems to be in a good place at the moment,” Thompson told Sky Sports.
“They’re creating chances, giving themselves an opportunity, and in doing so I think they’re in with a chance and I think they’ll be right in this game.
“One of the big things, though, is how Chelsea reacts to their defeat at the weekend after getting turned over by Bradford. It was quite embarrassing and Jose Mourinho said so himself.”
Thompson expects Mourinho to field his strongest team against Liverpool knowing that getting knocked out of two Cups in a week is not good enough for a team with the calibre of players that Chelsea has available.
“I think whoever Mourinho picks to play is going to be massive in their role,” said Thompson who has won the League twice.
“I think he made nine changes from the previous game against Liverpool. Everybody had the opportunity to showcase their ability and it went pear-shaped.
“Now I think he’ll demand a massive improvement, and that’s the only thing that worries me for Liverpool. How is this Chelsea team going to react?
“They’ve got to react better than they did against Bradford. I think it’s going to be very, very tight, but I fancy Liverpool to win it 2-1.
“Maybe Daniel Sturridge will get 20 minutes – we know he’s been back in training – and that could give everyone a big boost in front of goal.”
Meanwhile, the former Liverpool man is expecting Rodgers to make some moves in the transfer market despite the Northern Irishman saying he expects to be quiet.
He said: “I always like to see another striker coming in and especially now with Brendan playing Raheem up front on his own.
“He doesn’t seem to hold complete confidence in Rickie Lambert, Fabio Borini or Mario Balotelli.
“So I would like to see, and I think Brendan has said this himself, an experienced striker come in, like Gonzalo Higuain or Ezequiel Lavezzi. They’ve always been my favoured targets.
“If he gets the right offer for either Borini or Balotelli I think one of them could be heading out the door before the transfer window closes.”
