Liverpool vs Atalanta
Win this game and we’re straight through to the group stages and can focus on saving our key players over the Christmas period and getting as many of our injured players as possible back playing .
Since we last played and destroyed them Atalanta have struggled a bit and have drawn twice in the league slipping down the table to seventh. We might have a patchwork team but counter intuitively after losing our two CBs we have been defensively more solid and offensively have gone from strength to strength. It must be bewildering for the opposition faced with trying to defend against Mane, Salah and Jota and then soul destroying to realise that Firmino has started scoring again too;-)
As others have noted, Klopp was a bit cagey about the possible return dates for some of our injured players and especially the condition of Thiago. There was almost a hint of criticism possibly aimed at the player but more likely the medical staff who, quite rightly in my view, seem to have the final say when it comes to players returning from injury. Then again perhaps it was just Klopp teasing us all and Thiago will be doing a Lazarus for the Atalanta game……..
Having talked of Bobby above, it is rumoured that he missed training yesterday and might have picked up a knock. Hopefully, he was just being rested but I have assumed the worst and selected the team on the basis that he is injured or will at least be rested for this game. If I were Klopp would also try to give Robbo a well deserved rest too. If the game is going well I would sub Matip and Mane in the second half for similar reasons and give Mini and Origi a run out.
Team: Alisson, Neco, Fab, Matip, Tsimikas, Jones, Gini, Milner, Jota, Mane, Salah.
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