Venue: Anfield
Date: 07/10/12
Kick-Off: 3:00pm
Liverpool will hope to bounce back from Thursday’s disappointing 3-2 defeat at the hands of Udinese by securing a second successive Premier League win on Sunday.
At home to Stoke City, the Reds could face as many as four former Liverpool players, with Charlie Adam, Peter Crouch, Michael Owen and Jermaine Pennant all in contention to feature for the Potters. Crouch is Stoke’s leading scorer with four league goals this season, but the big man has failed to score against Liverpool in eight Premier League games since leaving the club.
For Liverpool, Jonjo Shelvey will serve the third game of his domestic three match ban, meaning Steven Gerrard, Joe Allen and Nuri Sahin are all expected to start in midfield. Upfront, Luis Suarez will lead the line for the Reds, while Stewart Downing and Oussama Assaidi will be hoping their performances against Udinese see them picked ahead of Raheem Sterling and Fabio Borini.
At the back, young defender Andre Wisdom could start if Brendan Rodgers chooses to keep the faith in the starting XI that beat Norwich 5-2 last Saturday. Jose Enrique has not yet fully recovered from his injury but may be fit enough for a place on the bench.
In his pre-match press conference on Friday, Rodgers said that Liverpool will fight for a place in the top four this season. If that fight is to be successful, the Reds need to show that they are capable of overcoming hard-to-beat teams like Stoke, especially at Anfield. Liverpool have won just two home Premier League games in 2012 and drew 0-0 when they hosted the Potters in January, but Stoke have not won any of their last 12 league away games and have never won a top-flight match at Anfield in 49 attempts.
After some shoddy defending cost Liverpool against Udinese, the Reds must be more solid at the back on Sunday to ensure Stoke do not break their Anfield duck.
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I’d leave borini out for this one. He hasn’t quite shown as much ability as suso, assaidi and sterling over the start of the season. A clean sheet would be good tomorrow.
Borini should be dropped, he hasn’t been up to his £. But, Suso should be on standby
pls if BR knws wat is gud 4 him he shld stop using reina 2 keep 4 us bcos reina is no more worthy 2 come close 2 liverpool’s goal post let him use jones instead.if nt reina wl cost him is job,i tink i av 2 drop my pen here.
How is anyone supposed to read that disjointed dribble!?.
BR should make sure confidence is restored interm of win at anfield and also working on our defence line and most importantly jones shd start instead of reina…….YNWA!