Jurgen Klopp to drop major hint on Liverpool centre-back plans later today

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Jurgen Klopp will let us all in on his Liverpool centre-back plans later today. The Reds’ boss faces a big challenge against RB Leipzig.

We learned next to nothing about Liverpool’s plans from their team against Fulham. Other than the fact Jurgen Klopp wanted to rest certain players.

But in terms of plans, nothing. The team was just too make-shift.

Against Leipzig, however, things will be different. Klopp can’t afford to get this one wrong and we’ll get a hint at his long-term centre-back plans for Liverpool.

The big one will be where he plays Fabinho. Playing him at the back suggests he wants to keep him there, even with many other options.

Putting him in midfield, though, tells us two things. Firstly, that he values him highly there and secondly, that he trusts his defenders.

There’s certainly no guarantee of the latter. Klopp has Nat Phillips, Rhys Williams, Ben Davies and Ozan Kabak to pick from – all have enormous question-marks over their heads.

But if Klopp picks two of them to face Leipzig, we’ll see where his trust is. In fact, we imagine his pairing tonight will be his preferred duo until the campaign is done.

There will be room for that to change, of course. Form and fitness create opportunities for others. But as for plans, we’ll see them tonight.

Williams starting would be a damning one. Kabak and Davies arrived so he could move out of the team but we saw him back on Sunday.

Now, as we say, we can’t learn too much from that but it was a reminder that he’s an option. Starting him alongside Phillips, for instance, suggests Kabak isn’t long for Liverpool.

As for what we hope for, well, Fabinho in midfield feels like a must. It requires trust in a centre-back pair but it also helps them out – he’s arguably the best defensive midfielder around, after all.

We’d back Phillips and Kabak as the pair, too. Again, question marks over both but they feel like the most-likely to get it right, given we’re yet to see Davies.

But that’s not what we expect. As in our predicted lineup for this one, Fabinho feels like a safe bet for centre-back. We’re just not sure the trust is there in others, yet.

And if it’s not there with two months of the season to go, we’re not sure it ever will be.