Liverpool welcome Bournemouth to Anfield for a Premier League match on Saturday afternoon.
Jurgen Klopp’s side have only collected two points from a possible nine this term and go into Saturday’s contest sitting below Bournemouth in the table. It’s the first time since a December 2015 meeting with Watford (then seventh) that Liverpool (ninth) have trailed a newly promoted team they were poised to face.
Here’s the XI Klopp may deploy to avoid the 3-0 beating the Hornets dished out that day and get Liverpool’s season back on track.
Focus turns to Saturday 👊 #LIVBOU pic.twitter.com/JbS5J7NtUn
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) August 24, 2022
GK: Alisson – Liverpool may have officially entered the crisis zone but their devoutly religious goalkeeper can always lean upon his faith in times of uncertainty. At the start of 2020, Alisson baptised his Liverpool teammate Roberto Firmino.
RB: Trent Alexander-Arnold – Liverpool’s penetrative fullback has played more passes into the penalty area than any other player in Europe’s top five leagues this season, completing four more than Lionel Messi (per FBref).
CB: Joe Gomez – The stand-in for the injured Joel Matip and Ibrahima Konate started a Premier League game at centre-back alongside Virgil van Dijk on Monday for the first time since losing 7-2 to Aston Villa in October 2020.
CB: Virgil van Dijk – During his teenage years coming through the ranks of his youth side in Breda, Van Dijk worked as a dishwasher in a local restaurant, earning €3 an hour.
LB: Andy Robertson – The Liverpool fullback had clearly read the pre-match stat pack when he bemoaned the “uphill battle” his side give themselves after they conceded the first goal for the seventh Premier League match running against Manchester United.
CM: Harvey Elliott – While the pair were at Fulham in 2019, Scott Parker gave Elliott his Premier League debut a month after turning 16.
CM: Fabinho – Liverpool’s assistant coach Pep Lijnders has gushed in the past that Fabinho “has the capacity to make the players around him better” but the Brazilian could do with upping his own performance after a sluggish start to the season.
CM: James Milner – Liverpool’s most experienced player spent much of Monday’s defeat to Manchester United arguing with Van Dijk as an uncharacteristic rift on the pitch emerged amid this squad.
RW: Mohamed Salah – Klopp’s claims that Salah “found a right foot on holiday” haven’t quite been borne out in front of goal. The Egyptian is yet to register a shot with his weaker side this season.
ST: Roberto Firmino – The Brazilian hasn’t scored a Premier League goal at Anfield since netting the winner against Tottenham in December 2020.
LW: Luis Diaz – Like many footballers, Diaz grew up playing barefoot in his local street. Unlike the majority, after finishing as joint-top scorer in the 2021 Copa America, he returned to his hometown of Barrancas and removed his shoes before joining in with a kickabout to literally prove he has his feet firmly on the ground.