Liverpool will be looking to bounce back from Wednesday’s nightmare against Real Madrid, with a win against Hull City at Anfield. Brendan Rodgers’ side were quite simply demolished on Wednesday night. They were blown away by the current best team in the world. There’s no shame in losing to such a good side, but the manner of how the last two goals were conceded was appalling. Defensive mistakes, Liverpool fans have become so accustomed to. However, Liverpool have won back-to-back games in the league, they will be looking to make it three out of three.
Hull have had a decent start to this season. Steve Bruce’s men are just three points behind the Reds, despite being six places behind them in the current league table. Hull managed to get a fantastic result last weekend, with a 2-2 draw at the Emirates. They may have been disappointed to only go home with a single point, though. Arsenal managed to bag a last minute equalizer. I’m sure Hull won’t have too many complaints.
In this exact fixture last season, Liverpool won 2-0, comfortably. A first-half header from Daniel Agger gave the home side a goal advantage. It was doubled, quickly after the restart, by the phenomenal, Luis Suarez. The two scorers who are incidentally not at the club anymore. Liverpool will be looking for a similar result come Saturday.
A fantastic picture from the game last season. (Liverpoolfc.tv)
As far as the line-up goes, Brendan Rodgers has a bit of a selection dilemma. Especially in the striker position.
Mario Balotelli was substituted at half-time in Liverpool’s loss to Madrid on Wednesday. Moments after the whistle, he swapped shirts with Pepe, before entering the tunnel. Of course there was an uproar from the British public, because he’s Mario Balotelli, after all.
It doesn’t bother me that Balotelli is swapping shirts with a player at half-time. I don’t care. All I care about how he performs on the pitch, and that hasn’t been good at all. Balotelli has been made a scapegoat for Liverpool’s major woes, defensively.
Will the Italian start on Saturday? I think, and hope, that he will. We know what he’s capable of. Obviously we haven’t really seen this yet, but give him time. I am confident that he will come good once given time. People, tend to be ex-Liverpool players, are writing him off already.
Philippe Coutinho was one of the only Liverpool players to come out of the Madrid game with any sort of credibility. Coutinho appears to be re-finding his much needed form. He was fantastic against Madrid, the only player they couldn’t really deal with. Rodgers subbed him and Henderson off at around an hour in. I believe that says a lot to how important he will be on Saturday.
Raheem Sterling will definitely start, you’d imagine. Sterling is our most important attacking player, as it stands. He didn’t do badly against Madrid, he was one of our better players (it wasn’t hard). Sterling played the second half of the game up top on his own. Before that, he was partnering Mario Balotelli, I hope we give that another try, as I think it has potential.
Adam Lallana could start, he was decent once coming on. But if Balotelli does start, you’d imagine he starts on the bench. He’s a fantastic impact sub to have on the bench, though. If Balotelli doesn’t start, he could be either side of Raheem Sterling on his own up top, again.
Jordan Henderson and Steven Gerrard will start. They always do, and rightly so, in my opinion. The question is, Joe Allen or Emre Can?
Joe Allen was one of our better players against Madrid. However, when Can came on, he was wonderful. The young German showed tremendous athleticism, against an unbelievable Madrid midfield. I’d start Can, just because of how good he was. Allen is always a good impact sub, too. The Welsh international quite often changes games when things aren’t going Liverpool’s way.
Alberto Moreno will most likely start on Saturday, too. I hope so. I think his attacking offering will be a lot more effective this weekend than it perhaps was against Madrid. He was often exposed by Madrid’s wonderful counter-attacking play in midweek. Against Hull, however, his attacking prowess should help us a lot more and he won’t be caught out as much, hopefully.
It will be Dejan Lovren and Martin Skrtel in defence. This is despite them being on pretty terrible form. We don’t have any options, at all, really.
I hope Javi Manquillo starts on Saturday. Glen Johnson had a pretty horrific game on Wednesday, and needs to be rested. Manquillo has done well since moving to Anfield on loan, too.
This is the side I hope we go with. I think it’s a realistic side, too:
Via FansCorners.com
I think Liverpool will win this, 2-1, in a scrappy affair. A clean sheet probably won’t be on the agenda, as it seems impossible for this defence to keep one. Raheem Sterling will notch one of the goals.
Bobby Vincent
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That would be the ideal starting XI in my books as well minus maybe the two CBs. I’d like to see Sakho get back in as a starter.
Hoping for a solid bounce back. Dropping 3 points this fixture could be just crushing.