Liverpool will host Nottingham Forest in their Premier League clash at Anfield this afternoon and Jurgen Klopp will likely refresh his starting lineup for the home fixture.
The Reds took a confident victory away from their Europa League group stage clash with Toulouse on Thursday night and will be hoping to extend their run of positive performances by taking all three points in front of the home support again tonight.
Diogo Jota, Darwin Nunez, Ryan Gravenberch, Wataru Endo and Mohamed Salah got their names on the scoresheet in the 5-1 thrashing against the French side, meaning that Liverpool retained their top spot in Group E.
Now, the focus will return to keeping competition tight at the top of the Premier League table and three points today will keep them three points behind Tottenham Hotspur at the top of the tree.
In terms of injuries, Thiago Alcantara, Stefan Bajcetic, Andy Robertson and Conor Bradley will be unavailable for selection as they continue their recovery, whilst Curtis Jones will serve his third and final match suspension after receiving a three-game ban against Spurs.
Cody Gakpo returned to action with a short cameo in the second half, and will be available for selection when Steve Cooper’s side make the trip to Merseyside today.
It has not been confirmed as to whether Luis Diaz will play today but it is looking very unlikely after the news broke last night that his parents had been kidnapped in Colombia.
At the time of writing, Sky News has reported that Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro has confirmed that the player’s mother has been rescued, but his father is yet to be found.
How could Liverpool line up against Nottingham Forest?
We predict Klopp will make seven changes to the team that beat Toulouse 5-1 mid-week, and the German coach will maintain his classic 4-3-3 formation.
The first four changes we expect to see are in the defensive set up with Alisson Becker, Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konate and Kostas Tsimikas reprising their roles against their Trentside opponents this afternoon.
In the centre of the pitch, we predict that Alexis Mac Allister will replace Wataru Endo in the deep-lying role and Dominik Szoboszlai will replace a suspended Curtis Jones whilst Ryan Gravenberch retains his role on the left side of central midfield.
The seventh and final change we predict is in the attacking threat with the club’s top goal-scorer Salah returning on the right wing to replace Harvey Elliot alongside an otherwise unchanged front three of Diogo Jota and Darwin Nunez.
