Sanjay Nair believes that Jürgen Klopp must drop Georginio Wijnaldum to secure a win over Crystal Palace on Monday night.
‘Never change a winning combination’ is the formula in most cases when it comes to team selection. On the back of such a convincing win at home last week, it would seem the natural course of action when Liverpool visit Crystal Palace on Monday night.
However, no visit to Selhurst Park in recent memory has been easy and Sanjay Nair looks at the potential starting line-up, with perhaps one important change that might be needed to ensure 3 points are a certainty.
No changes at the back
Even though we are only one match into the season, Allison and the back-line already look like a confident group. With Klavan having left for Italy and Lovren still unavailable, Joe Gomez will look to further establish himself as the first-choice CB alongside Virgil van Dijk.
A successful battle against the powerful presence of former teammate Christian Benteke will be just the kind of challenge that will help in this cause. Although Moreno and Clyne are fit and available providing healthy competition for the left-back and right-back positions, it is not going to be easy to dislodge Andy Robertson & Trent Alexander-Arnold from the team at present.
Henderson in place of Wijnaldum
Roy Hodgson will most likely continue with his 4-4-2 setup which means that Liverpool will need extra steel in their midfield to negate the Eagles’ quartet. This makes a case to bring our captain Jordan Henderson into the starting line-up.
With James Milner and Naby Keïta having performed brilliantly against the Hammers, Gini Wijnaldum will need to be left out to accommodate Henderson.
Although he has shown considerable improvement of late, Gini’s travails on his travels have been well documented and this change would make a lot of sense in the overall scheme of things. Keïta can also push further up the pitch knowing Hendo will be there to clean-up on any Palace counter-attacks.
Front-line picks itself
Crystal Palace are a well-organized team at the back with a wealth of experience and youthful exuberance. But even they are prone to moments of panic when put under pressure.
Attacking the Palace defence at pace will be the key factor and our scintillating trio of Sadio Mané, Mohamed Salah & Roberto Firmino will need to be at their quickest.
Ironically, it is former Liverpool defender Mamadou Sakho who is most prone to recklessness in this Palace side and we would do well to exploit this. Mané & Salah, both scorers in this fixture last time around, will be raring to go and return with another 3 points in the bag.
Substitutes
Pace & quick-feet being the key, Daniel Sturridge along with Xherdan Shaqiri, who could make his full LFC debut, could come on earlier than expected. The other potential change off the bench could see the debut of Fabinho in place of James Milner, for shutting shop in midfield and providing more cover for the defence.
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