Kick off: 8 pm
Gérard Houllier returns to Anfield on Monday as Liverpool take on an Aston Villa side who have lost their last three games including Wednesday night’s 2-1 defeat at Birmingham in the Carling Cup quarter-final. Liverpool did impress in the first half at White Hart Lane but came back empty handed after Aaron Lennon netted the winner in the second minute of injury time.
Villa have been plagued by injuries and are currently without Marc Albrighton, Steve Sidwell, Stiliyan Petrov, Andreas Weimann and Fabian Delph while Emile Heskey and Nigel Reo-Coker will have late fitness tests. Gabriel Agbonlahor however is likely to lead the attack after returning in midweek against Birmingham. Ashley Young will also miss out as he is suspended.
Liverpool, on the other hand are likely to make 7 to 8 changes to the side that travelled to Romania with the likes of Fernando Torres, Dirk Kuyt, Raul Meireles, Glen Johnson, Maxi Rodrigues and Paul Konchesky all fresh from last Sunday. Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher however are currently injured and will miss a league game together for the first time since Liverpool beat Derby County 6-0 in September 2007. Joe Cole played 75 minutes against Steaua and could also start, but will take his place on the bench in all likelihood, considering the form he’s been in.
Predicted lineup: Pepe Reina(C), Glen Johnson, Soto Kyrgiakos, Martin Skrtel, Paul Konchesky, Dirk Kuyt, Lucas, Raul Meireles, Maxi Rodrigues, David Ngog, Fernando Torres
I was pleased to see Hodgson go 100% with my team selection for the Europa Cup game, even if the players weren’t deployed in my preferred positions in that 4411 formation (i.e. Babel on the right, Pacheco behind Jovanovich through the middle and Cole drifting from the left).
Let’s see if it’s the start of a new trend anyway;
Reina/ Johnson-Kyrgiakos-Skrtel-Aurelio/ Babel-Meireles-Lucas-Jovanovich/ Kuyt-Torres
I’d prefer to see Kelly or Wilson at CB instead of Skrtel, but I know that that is too much to ask for (as is seeing Maxi dropped for Jova/Babel too probably…)