Former Liverpool midfielder Danny Murphy believes that Reds right back Trent Alexander-Arnold will surely start against Manchester City on Saturday.
The 21-year-old lost out on a starting spot to Joe Gomez at Anfield last season, but Murphy believes the England international is a shoe-in this time round.
“Last season at Anfield, Klopp selected Joe Gomez ahead of Trent Alexander-Arnold. It suggested he was more concerned about City’s attacking threat rather than concentrating on his own team,” he wrote in his Daily Mail column.
“I can’t see a repeat this time. Alexander-Arnold will play and in my opinion Liverpool should regard the game almost as a free hit. City are still good enough to win, but Klopp would have bitten your hand off if you had given him a healthy lead at this stage. Even if Liverpool lose, they are still three points clear so the risk-reward is in their favour and, as I said, City are not unbeatable at the moment.”
OPINION
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp certainly went with the safety-first approach last season, selecting Gomez over Alexander-Arnold at right back to try and limit City’s offensive talents. However, it’s surely massively unlikely that Klopp will opt for the same selection this time round. Alexander-Arnold is undoubtedly one of the first names on the team sheet for the German, and so it would go against the norm for Klopp to leave him out on Saturday. Obviously you always have to be wary of City’s flair players – Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva and Raheem Sterling must be kept on a tight leash – but Liverpool’s best chance here might be to initiate a fire fight with Pep Guardiola’s side. City’s defence is really suffering with injuries – particularly Aymeric Laporte’s – and so if the Reds get at them then they may well find success. If they can keep things tight at the back, and Alexander-Arnold will be a big part of that, then they will likely do very well against the champions.
