Liverpool welcome former boss Rafael Benitez and his Newcastle United side to Anfield as the Reds aim to go temporarily second on the table with a win in a crucial Premier League clash.
Liverpool manager Jurgen hopes his side continue to take advantage of their recent momentum in the Premier League with yet another scalp of a team struggling this season. This time it’s former Reds’ boss Rafael Benitez and his Newcastle United side, who visit Anfield for a crucial clash in the league.
Liverpool are unbeaten at home this season in the Premier League and Jurgen Klopp will make his selection keeping in mind to protect this run while also aiming to go second on the table, albeit temporarily. To start with, Liverpool do not have any suspensions leading to the Newcastle game.
The only ones possibly sidelined for the game are Georginio Wijnaldum and forward Danny Ings, who missed the West Ham clash with illness and are in doubt to feature against Newcastle, while Nathaniel Clyne is still building up match fitness. Captain Jordan Henderson though, is in contention to start.
Klopp confirmed the same in his pre-match press conference, beaming with joy over Henderson’s progress, although he placed James Milner’s availability in doubt, with the Englishman recovering from a knock.
“Hendo is fine, he trained completely normally – all good. It was a really good week for him so far, the best for three or four weeks now. Everybody saw Millie got a real knock in the last game. That still hurts a little bit. We will see how that improves. It’s not an injury but it’s a little issue.”
Klopp, however, does have options to cover for Wijnaldum and possibly Milner’s absences, with Emre Can and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain now likely to start alongside Henderson in the midfield trio.
Klopp has preferred a 4-3-3 formation in recent games and is likely to continue playing that style against Newcastle. In defence, Klopp is set to stick with the central defence pairing of Virgil Van Dijk and Joel Matip as both the players, despite their own criticism have stabled a rocking ship at the back for Liverpool.
Loris Karius has seemingly established himself as the first choice goalkeeper, at least till the end of the season and is likely to continue there ahead of Simon Mignolet. Trent Alexander-Arnold should start at right-back, and Andrew Robertson will continue his run at left-back, having been preferred by Klopp after good showings in recent months.
The Liverpool trio of attackers, Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane, have rediscovered their lethal form and are in line to start against Liverpool after all of them got on the scoresheet against West Ham in the last round of fixtures.
