Atletico Madrid got some bad injury news ahead of the game with Liverpool on Wednesday evening. It plays right into the Reds’ hands.
Liverpool host Atletico Madrid tonight in a huge game for the Spanish champions. After a defeat at home on the last matchday, another negative result could seriously dampen their Champions League hopes.
In fact, a loss could leave them three points behind FC Porto and needing to beat both the Portuguese giants and AC Milan. They really, really won’t want to lose this one.
And so bad injury news is really the last thing Atletico needed before their trip to Anfield. Yet, that’s what they’ve got.
According to AS, they’ll be without Thomas Lemar, Marcos Llorente and Geoffrey Kondogbia thanks to injuries. They join Stefan Savic and Antoine Griezmann on the sidelines, with both players suspended for this one.
Atletico Madrid injury news plays into Liverpool hands
The other side to all of this is what victory means for Liverpool – qualification. In fact, three points would almost certainly guarantee top spot in the group.
But Liverpool may be content with a draw here. That’s probably going to see them through, or at least only really needing a point against Porto to confirm things.
Thus the Reds can take things quite easy here. There’s absolutely no need to attack Atletico, knowing full well that Diego Simeone’s side will have to push forward in search of goals.
Liverpool can play with control, then, and potentially try and work the counter against a side that won’t be full-strength. The question is just about balancing the two.
For us, it perhaps makes sense playing a slower possession game to begin with. Try and force Atletico into really going for it in the second half, when maybe Liverpool can throw on some extra pace up top.
But really, Atletico’s injuries limit them so much that Klopp can’t really fail with his team selection here. There are several ways to play against them now and Liverpool can’t have asked for an easier go at this.