Liverpool vs Crystal Palace
After our midweek fling with European royalty we are back to the mundane and you can’t get much more mundane than Crystal Palace and I should know as I lived close by for a good few years. I have a funny story about Crystal Palace. Well it’s not very funny, more sad really, but it will fill a few column inches.
When we played Chelsea the other week my great Niece and Nephew were visiting (I know, I know, I don’t look old enough) Anyway, my Nephew was a Crystal Palace fan so I had plenty of jokes all lined up and ready to go when he dropped the bombshell that he now supports Chelsea…… I must admit I was a bit stunned and though I made a few plastic comments my heart wasn’t really in it. My main thought was one of horror that you could just change the team you have supported for a number of years like they were a pair of old socks. The sending off further dented my enthusiasm for the game and what might have been a good day for a bit of football banter rather fizzled out.
That small incident brought home to me how football has changed and set me thinking about the changes I have seen in my lifetime some good but most bad and what the future holds. Still, I will hold those thoughts for an article another day but just to say that football is nothing without fans but not much either without clubs like Palace too.
Palace have started the season quite well under Vieira with a couple of draws against Brentford and West Ham and a convincing 3-0 win last time out against an albeit injury hit 10 man Spurs. This follows a massive clear out of players in the Summer and the promotion of several young players into the first team squad. They have also made a couple of astute purchases in Edouard and Hughes as well as the loan of Gallagher from Chelsea which when added to the odd flashes of brilliance from Zaha will make for an interesting challenge.
I was a bit surprised that Klopp rotated his starting line-up for the Milan game but if he was prepared to do that for such an important game I think he is likely to continue with even more of the same for Palace. It was especially brave to rest VVD but if it was for his long term good health then it was the right decision for the right reasons. I have said before that I don’t like rotation of the defence but perhaps these days all positions (except goalkeeper) have to be rotated and with a better quality squad perhaps this can now be achieved without significant, if indeed any, loss to the overall team performance.
Team: With Firmino expected back in training until next week I think Klopp might go with something like: Alisson, TAA, Gomez, VVD, Tsimikas, Fab, Thiago, Jones, Mane, Jota, Salah with well earned rests for Robbo and Matip. He might, though, start with a stronger team and use his substitutions instead.
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