Liverpool have had a fine start under Jurgen Klopp despite a tough set of fixtures.
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Mignolet was told by goalkeeper coach John Achterberg in a meeting before training on Friday that he would remain on the sidelines after seing Karius make his competitive debut in the 3-0 EFL Cup victory over Derby in midweek.
It’s 5-2 with Hills that this will be Wenger’s last season in the Arsenal hotseat, while he is 2-7 to remain in situ for the start of the next campaign.
The five-time European champions are sixth in the Premier League, having beaten Arsenal, Chelsea and champions Leicester City and drawn with Tottenham Hotspur this season. Klopp is desperate to shake off that tag and has asked for “greedy” and “angry” performances in order to produce another classic Anfield victory and extend the winning streak against Hull who will primarily look for a draw and bank on their defense once more. The viewers could be in for more of the same with Hull trying to sit back deep and defend while graciously accepting any chance of attack or catching their esteemed opponents on the break as they pile on the pressure.
The Derby skipper scuffed a clearance following a Coutinho corner and the ball dropped straight to Klavan, six yards out, who poked in his first ever Liverpool goal.
Klopp does have some interesting selection dilemmas ahead, starting in goal where Karius – a £4.7million summer signing from Mainz – is now in a position to challenge Simon Mignolet for the number one spot, although he did not get much chance to showcase his talents in the one-sided encounter at the iPro Stadium. Now we have another two days until Saturday and we will see who trains all the time and is ready for the game.
“We had a lot of possession and dominated the game but we didn’t score [at first], but I was in the right place at the right moment – or maybe the wrong place, I don’t know!”
“Change is sometimes good, but it’s not that everybody was 100% happy with the money we earned [from previous sales]”.
“It is not the place to announce line-ups but of course we have to think about it but in a positive way”, said Klopp.
Adam Lallana and Georginio Wijnaldum should both be available for this match after Klopp held out the duo Wednesday as a precaution.
Karius missed the start of the season after breaking his hand and he needed two operations to rectify the issue; during his absence Mignolet did little wrong and he will have been left crestfallen by Klopp’s decision.
“Could we have done better?”
Goals – 19 in seven games in all competitions – have been flying in with 10 different scorers already but Klopp has cautioned about getting carried away.
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“We have to think about why people think we have problems against bus parking”, Klopp said. “I said already this is a very important tournament for us”, he pointed out. At Liverpool there’s actually no need to be a selling club, nobody forces us to say “come on, sell, we need money”.
