Jurgen Klopp will give strong clue to his first-choice thinking vs Fulham

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Jurgen Klopp will give everyone a clue to his thinking vs Fulham on Sunday. The boss needs to decide on his first-choice players.

Jurgen Klopp faces some tough decisions vs Fulham on Sunday. The Premier League clash feels must-win – as every game does when you’re chasing the title.

Unless you have a 20-point lead with ten games to go, of course.

But this game is particularly notable because of who come after it – Tottenham Hotspur. Jose Mourinho’s team come to Anfield on Wednesday. That’s one of the biggest games of the season.

Spurs and Liverpool are neck-and-neck, after all, and look like the likely title contenders. That’s a huge game, then.

Thus Klopp picks his Fulham side with two games in mind. Firstly, Fulham but arguably more importantly, Spurs.

First-choice

The Spurs game takes precedence. Klopp effectively had to play probability with the two games and that weighs things towards Wednesday.

The boss will hope that a semi-weakened side can win on Sunday so he can rest players to face Spurs. That would explain why the likes of Mohamed Salah, Diogo Jota and Fabinho played against Midtjylland – they might not face Fulham.

Keeping players fresh for Spurs is so key – and a first-team a necessity – that we’ll see who Klopp considers first-choice on Sunday.

Any stars he leaves out will surely face Spurs – so they’re first-choice. Similarly, anyone he brings off early will suggest the same. We can’t imagine Jordan Henderson plays the full 90, for instance.

It’s one of the first times this season that Klopp will pick and choose. Injuries have necessitated that whoever can play, plays. As has the intense fixture list.

But there has been an opportunity to rest ahead of this one. On top of that, the injury situation is lightening up a bit – centre-backs aside.

There aren’t any serious injuries to the forwards. Trent Alexander-Arnold is back and Alisson Becker should return imminently.

Thus Klopp can afford to play with his squad a little and still have a strong team out. And when he’s not forced to play anyone, we’ll finally get an idea of how Klopp sees his first-choice XI these days.