Liverpool’s predicted XI vs Bournemouth as Arne Slot leaves ‘erratic’ player out again

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Liverpool face a big task on Saturday as they take on in-form Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium.

The Cherries are unbeaten across each of their last 12 games in all competitions and have beaten both Arsenal and Man City at home this season.

As a result, Saturday feels like a huge day in the Premier League title race. With Arsenal and City facing off on Sunday, a Liverpool win would be huge.

Having rested most of the Liverpool squad for Wednesday’s loss against PSV Eindhoven, Arne Slot will be hoping his players are ready and refreshed for what will be a real battle. Here’s the XI we expect Slot to send out on the south coast.

Defence

It was good to see Caoimhin Kelleher get a run out on Wednesday, but there’s little question that Alisson Becker will return for Saturday’s clash.

In defence there will be wholesale changes, too. Trent Alexander-Arnold being the first of those as he takes over from Conor Bradley.

Position	Team	Played MP	Won W	Drawn D	Lost L	For GF	Against GA	Diff GD	Points Pts
1	LiverpoolLiverpool	22	16	5	1	54	21	33	53
2	ArsenalArsenal	23	13	8	2	44	21	23	47
3	Nottm ForestNottingham Forest	23	13	5	5	33	27	6	44
4	Man CityManchester City	23	12	5	6	47	30	17	41

Ibrahima Konate and Virgil van Dijk are also on the back of a rare week off and will resume their rock solid partnership against the Cherries.

Having been deployed at centre-back for 64 minutes on Wednesday, Andy Robertson looks set to be the only member of the previous back five to keep his place. Robertson will revert to his usual left-back role.

Midfield

After changing all three players on Wednesday, Liverpool’s midfield looked predictably disjointed against PSV.

James McConnell really stood out, but there’s no chance of the 20-year-old fighting his way into the starting line-up for this one.

READ MORE: Arne Slot reveals Diogo Jota is back in Liverpool training and gives update on Darwin Nunez and Joe Gomez

Instead, with Curtis Jones still injured, Slot will probably pick his three most used midfielders of the season so far.

That will see the fantastic trio of Alexis Mac Allister, Ryan Gravenberch and Dominik Szoboszlai all return to start.

Attack

Liverpool’s attack was supposed to be the only real part of the team which retained a more senior look to it on Wednesday. However, after Darwin Nunez was ruled out through illness, that was not really the case.

Nunez has been ‘erratic‘ for large swathes of the season but his illness came at a time when he was starting to build confidence again.

Unable to add to that with a good display in the Netherlands, the 25-year-old will likely be on the bench once again on Saturday.

In our opinion that will leave Luis Diaz to go through the middle, with the red hot Cody Gakpo continuing his good form from the left.

Well rested and no doubt raring to go, Mohamed Salah will look to add to his nine career goals against Bournemouth on the Liverpool right.

Liverpool’s predicted XI vs Bournemouth: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Konate, Van Dijk, Robertson; Gravenberch, Mac Allister, Szoboszlai; Salah, Diaz, Gakpo