The friendly derby, they call it. Meanwhile, Everton is in ninth place and surely say from relegation, sitting 12 points clear.
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Paul Ince believes Liverpool FC will ease to a 3-0 win against Everton in the Merseyside derby at Goodison Park on Saturday morning. While the result wasn’t a shock, the scoreline reverberated around the world. This is the game and it’s my first derby here.
Everton managed a draw at Anfield in the reverse fixture and haven’t beaten the Reds for quite a while.
Given the current trajectories of the two clubs, they may not get a better chance for some time.
Eliaquim Mangala and Gylfi Sigurdsson won’t be featuring for Everton.
Jordan Henderson has been ruled out of the Champions League second leg through suspension so he’s certain to keep his place on Saturday while James Milner should also keep his spot in midfield after another impressive outing last night.
Up ahead in midfield, the tireless Tom Davies should line up alongside Morgan Schneiderlin to release Wayne Rooney into more advanced positions.
Emre Can is also a doubt, while Joel Matip, Adam Lallana, Joe Gomez and Ragnar Klavan are all injured. However, the squad may be diminished, as Liverpool faces Manchester City in the Champions League quarterfinals on Wednesday, and Jurgen Klopp could chose to rotate and rest his squad.
Despite substantial investment, Everton have gone backwards this season, while in direct contrast, Liverpool seem to be generating tangible forward momentum under Jurgen Klopp.
The former England boss looks increasingly likely to depart Goodison in the summer, though Big Sam would certainly enjoy being the man to end that miserable streak.
“There are two reasons: I don’t want to give too much away and we want to wait a little bit”.
Idrissa Gana Gueye is available for selection for after recovering from a hamstring injury. Despite Pep Guardiola fielding four midfielders to try to out-pass the Liverpool press, the energy expended by Liverpool ensured that they came out on top.
With some changes expected in the Liverpool ranks for this Saturday’s early kick-off, Wijnaldum is one player widely expected to profit with an increasingly rare start. The 25-year-old, who is likely to start, has pace, trickery and a goal threat to cause plenty of problems to an Everton defence which has only had one clean sheet so far in 2018.
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The game provides perhaps one final opportunity for Allardyce to show some actual ambition, but he was already in a bullish mood on Friday.
