Will Sturridge start tonight, or will Klopp rest the striker in favour of Benteke?
Kick-off: 18:00
Venue: Anfield
Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool welcome Bundesliga strugglers Augsburg this evening for the second leg of the round of 32 of the Europa League. All eyes will be expectantly on the Reds to comfortably follow up a 0-0 draw in Germany with a comfortable win this evening.
Following that draw in the first leg, Jurgen Klopp will not have the luxury of giving most of his key players a rest. But with the Capital One Cup final on Sunday, he is likely to mix things up a bit, just to ensure he has his best players fit to take some part in both matches.
Having no involvement in the FA Cup action over the weekend will hopefully be a blessing for the players, who have enjoyed a very rare full week off since the first leg last week. But Jurgen will still have a few tough decisions to make when it comes to his team.
One thing that might make his decisions a bit easier are the continuing injuries to Martin Skrtel, Joe Allen and Adam Lallana, whilst Dejan Lovren is out with an illness. Both Joe Gomez and Danny Ings are out for the foreseeable future so there are some areas of the team that will leave Jurgen little choice.
Where he has more options though, are in central midfield and attack, with a host of players having returned from injury recently. Klopp is likely to go with a midfield three, meaning any of Jordan Henderson, James Milner, Emre Can and Lucas Leiva could be selected, although having just signed off on a new long-term contract, Kevin Stewart could have some role to play. Whoever gets the nod tonight though, could well sit out Sunday.
Likewise, it will be interesting to see whether Daniel Sturridge is risked from the start ahead of Sunday, or if he gets the go ahead tonight and is taken off early. The likes of Philippe Coutinho and Roberto Firmino will probably play a big role tonight, and either Divock Origi or Christian Benteke could start ahead of the England striker.
For Augsburg, things are a little bit more concerning than last week after their star man was injured in the first leg. Raul Bobadilla will play no part tonight, whilst Augsburg will also be without Daniel Baier, Jeong-Ho Hong, Jan Moravek, Piotr Trochowski and Jan-Ingwer Callsen-Bracker, whilst both Markus Feulner and Dong-Won Ji are both suffering injuries since the beginning of the week.
It’s unlikely we’ll see any sort of intentionally weakened team tonight but after a big win at the weekend, Markus Weinzierl may now have one eye on avoiding relegation and beginning to climb the table.
The Reds are big favourites for tonight’s game and will be expected to end the tie quite comfortably but given that that was also the case last week, don’t expect it to be quite as easy as all that.
Having won at the weekend, the German side will no doubt feel buoyed ahead of tonight’s game and we’re likely to see a different side to their game tonight, with Liverpool allowed much more of the ball at home. Something we’ve struggled with when it comes to breaking teams down at home.
Recent form suggests that both sides are in fairly similar form but the onus will still be on the Reds to take the initiative and progress. And with the club’s biggest game of the season approaching on Sunday an emphatic display would be just the ticket a few days prior.
Catch the Reds on BTSport tonight from 18:00 GMT.
