Liverpool will make the short trip to Manchester tomorrow afternoon to meet Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium as the Premier League resumes and Jurgen Klopp will have a number of returnees to choose from.
The Reds have had their fair share of injury troubles going into the international break, and the Liverpool manager would’ve been delighted when all of his players on duty for their respective nations returned back to training earlier this week without a scratch.
Whilst there have been no new injuries to worry about, concerns surrounding the likes of Ibrahima Konate, Curtis Jones, Ryan Gravenberch and Joe Gomez ahead of the break plagued hopes of putting up a fight against the treble winners this weekend.
However, Klopp has taken to his pre-match press conference today to confirm that all of the aforementioned are back in full training and available for selection, with only Thiago Alcantara, Stefan Bajcetic and Conor Bradley in recovery for the foreseeable.
This will be a huge boost for the Liverpool side on their trip to the blue side of Manchester and will put them in a fantastic position to compete with their title rivals, and with just one point between the two giants in the Premier League table standings.
How could Liverpool line up vs Man City?
We predict that Klopp will make four changes to the starting eleven that beat Brentford ahead of the European Qualifiers, but will maintain his infamous 4-3-3 formation.
The first change we expect to see will be in the defensive set-up with Ibrahima Konate returning to the starting line-up replacing Joel Matip alongside an otherwise unchanged back four of Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk and Kostas Tsimikas.
We predict that there will be two changes in the centre of the pitch to complete a midfield three with Hungarian hero Dominik Szoboszlai, who will likely retain his spot after impressing on international duty.
Alexis Mac Allister could return to the starting eleven after serving his one-match ban for too many bookings, whilst Curtis Jones’ fitness boost couldn’t have come at a better time and we expect to see him in midfield tomorrow.
The fourth and final change we think that Klopp will make comes in the final third with Luis Diaz reprising his role on the left wing to replace Diogo Jota.
Both Mohamed Salah and Darwin Nunez scored multiple goals on the international stage over the last fortnight, the Egypt captain found the back of the net four times, whilst the Uruguayan centre-forward scored three, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see them both start.
With that being said, the highly-anticipated fixture will definitely be one to watch even for the neutral, but Liverpool will need to bring their A-game to the 12:30pm kick-off if they want to steal all three points from the Etihad.
