Liverpool suffered a rather humiliating defeat at the hands of Manchester City on Saturday but they will have to quickly get back on their feet because up next, they will be facing Chelsea.
The Reds head to London to take on Chelsea who have just sacked their manager Graham Potter. Bruno Saltor is going to be in charge on Tuesday so Jurgen Klopp’s side have a great chance to pick up three points.
After the loss to Man City, Liverpool are eight points away from the fourth spot so they need to treat every game as a final. They will face Chelsea in midweek and then they take on Arsenal at the weekend and to be really honest, the Anfield outfit are not in great shape to beat the Gunners.
Against Arsenal, they could suffer the same fate that they suffered against Manchester City so picking up a win against Chelsea will be really critical. A loss or a draw on Tuesday and it will be almost impossible for Liverpool to grab a Champions League spot.
Liverpool’s team news and injuries:
Luis Diaz has returned to training which is great news for the manager but the winger will not be ready until the end of this month. Apart from him, all the other injured players are ruled out of Tuesday’s game.
Midfielders Naby Keita and Thiago are out with muscle injuries and neither of them is going to be fit in time while Bajcetic and Calvin Ramsey are ruled out for the remainder of the season.
The manager has updated in his pre-match press conference: “We had Thiago yesterday in training, in normal team training, which is good as well, but he’s not available for tomorrow of course, so we will see how he reacts.”
After Saturday’s game, the manager would love to make changes to his starting line up but because Liverpool are under so much pressure, we don’t think Klopp will take too many gambles.
Harvey Elliott played as the third midfielder but against Chelsea, Jurgen Klopp should rely on the much more experienced James Milner to feature alongside Fabinho and Henderson.
Cody Gakpo led the line against Manchester City but he had a rather poor outing so he is going to be benched which will likely allow Firmino to come into the team.
Jota has just come back from an injury so he is going to be rested meaning Darwin Nunez is going to get a start.
Liverpool predicted line up vs Chelsea:
Predicted Starting XI(4-3-3): Alisson; Van Dijk, Konate, Alexander-Arnold, Robertson; Fabinho, Henderson, James Milner; Mo Salah, Firmino, Nunez.
