It has been a pretty impressive week for Liverpool football club who overcame a strong Manchester City side to march on to the semifinals of the UEFA Champions League. The Reds were thoroughly dominated in the first half of the second leg but managed to restrict City and mounted a comeback in the second half.
A 5-1 aggregate win over Manchester City was unexpected and now, the side will be beaming with confidence for the remainder of the season. The upcoming league game against Bournemouth should be straight-forward.
Liverpool have won four of their last five games in all competitions and the one where they failed to win was last weekend against Everton. Jurgen Klopp has understandably rested a few players and Liverpool didn’t have enough firepower to win the Merseyside derby.
Considering the shift the players put in last Tuesday, some of them will be a bit jaded. But with three days of rest, Klopp should be able to name a pretty strong starting lineup against the Cherries.
Klopp still has a few players missing due to injuries and he would have loved to have them back. There aren’t too many games remaining from now until the end of the season but if Liverpool are to stay competitive, they’ll have to rotate the squad well.
Here’s how the Reds could line up against Bournemouth…
Defence
Joel Matip and Joe Gomez are out with injuries which means Klopp only has the option of using Ragnar Klavan in place of either one of Virgil van Dijk or Dejan Lovren. The latter could be given a breather as he has played three games in around 10 days. Klavan and van Dijk are expected to start at the heart of the defence.
Alberto Moreno is in line to get a start at left-back while Nathaniel Clyne, after playing in the derby, will probably start in place of Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Midfield
Klopp has a couple of injuries to deal with as Adam Lallana and Emre Can won’t be available for the game.
Jordan Henderson is set to return and start as the deepest midfielder. Gini Wijnaldum did a wonderful job of deputising for the skipper against Manchester City and the Dutchman could be rested after putting in quite a shift in the last game.
James Milner and Alex-Oxlade Chamberlain could continue in midfield.
Attack
Sadio Mane is likely to be rested which means Roberto Firmino might be given the role of playing on the left. Danny Ings will lead the line while league top-scorer Mo Salah will start on the right.
