Liverpool host Fulham today and changes are in order. Here are three daring moves we want to see Jurgen Klopp make at Anfield.
Defenders in defence
Of all the changes Liverpool can make against Fulham, this one might be the most important.
We want to see a centre-back pairing of Nat Phillips and Ben Davies. Yes, yet another new one (we think this would make it 20 but we’ve honestly lost count).
It’s less about thinking Phillips and Davies are an elite partnership and more for what it means elsewhere. Because with those two at the back, Fabinho can return to midfield.
That’s the big one for us. Get the Brazilian in there, back him to shield the defence, and allow other midfielders to focus on what they do best.
Which brings us to no.2.
Forward motion
We don’t want to see a defence-minded midfield, though. Place that faith in Fabinho and surround him with forward-thinking midfielders.
Our preference would be Curtis Jones and Thiago but Naby Keita could return to the starting XI. We just want midfielders who can use Fabinho’s reliability to move forward with the ball.
Get between the lines, attack the box, and look to continuously move Liverpool forward. Jones and Thiago are magnificent at that and we think they can kick on even further with less defensive responsibility.
Dropped
Mohamed Salah went off on 62 minutes against Chelsea. He should absolutely not suffer similar fate against Fulham. The Egyptian remains the Premier League’s top scorer and he remains the most likely to get Liverpool firing.
Instead, it has to be either Sadio Mane or Roberto Firmino to drop out. The pair are going through some terrible individual form and it’s creating a black hole in attack. There’s just no output.
So we want Diogo Jota to get an hour here. He got 30 minutes against Chelsea and Liverpool should step his comeback up further, here.
No more than an hour, though. Liverpool have a huge fixture against RB Leipzig in midweek and we can’t afford to see him break down again.
But it must be either Mane or Firmino to drop out. They’re just not reliabl enough.
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