Liverpool are likely to have the midfield duo of Adam Lallana and Georginio Wijnaldum available for selection after the two were rested for the mid-week match in the EFL Cup. Of the eight players signed in 2013/14, only two remain and one of those, Mamadou Sakho, is currently out of favour, while the other, Simon Mignolet, is now under pressure from Loris Karius, an even more recent arrival.
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Liverpool’s season is on an upward curve after a goal-laden start but manager Jurgen Klopp knows it is still far too early to make judgements.
Jurgen Klopp’s side, who next face Hull City on Saturday, now sit sixth in the table with 10 points from their opening five games.
These are uncertain times for Hull, who remain in continued takeover talks, while after nearly a week’s deliberation, Mike Phelan is still to accept an offer to become manager on a full-time basis after a successful two-month spell in caretaker charge since the departure of Steve Bruce.
“Nothing has happened until now”. “I can not remember a lot of space in the games we played against Chelsea or Tottenham (a 1-1 draw)”. In 2011/12 their outlay was £8.6m, an amount that Ian Ayre, their chief executive, said “we will always try to reduce”. We are still working on that. I can not remember a lot of space against Tottenham – they were with 10 men behind the ball when we had the ball. There’s no time to look for excuses.
This is likely to be a significantly more hard test for Karius than the untroubled 90 minutes he breezed through at Derby and the same is true for Liverpool, who Klopp recognises must still prove their credentials to critics despite a fine start to the campaign.
“There’s no expectation on us on Saturday”. We have to think about why people think we have problems against bus-parking. Football is quite a simple game but it’s hard to win. For once, Liverpool were top of a league, as this was a sum that none of their European competitors could match.
Livermore, a makeshift centre-half in the Tigers’ first five league games, missed the midweek EFL Cup win at Stoke due to a one-game ban and caretaker boss Mike Phelan must decide whether to recall him or retain Harry Maguire alongside skipper Curtis Davies.
Phelan played a string of new signings with Markus Henriksen, Ryan Mason, David Marshall and the United duo of James Weir and Will Keane making their debuts for the club.
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“They’ve done a good job”. All is positive but it is about finding the right squad.
