Jurgen Klopp always does a good job of leaving things to the imagination when it comes to Liverpool’s starting lineup for each game.
Though his fitness updates for the likes of Jordan Henderson, Joel Matip and Philippe Coutinho have given fans a confidence boost, they have neither confirmed or denied which of the trio could feature from the off against Manchester United on Sunday.
The feeling is that Philippe Coutinho will lineup from the start after making his comeback from a lengthy injury layoff with a 30 minute cameo in the midweek League Cup defeat to Southampton. We expect the Brazilian to feature on the left of an attacking trio with Roberto Firmino occupying a more central role and Adam Lallana playing just beside him.
Pinning any one of these three down to a position is futile given their tendency to drift into every area of the pitch throughout the game. It is their shared fluidity, slick movement and the speed at which they move the ball that we feel Klopp will opt for as opposed to Divock Origi.
We aren’t expecting to see Joel Matip play despite the defender returning to full training on Thursday. This would mean Klopp sticking with a central defensive partnership of Ragnar Klavan and Dejan Lovren in front of Simon Mignolet, who is likely to replace Loris Karius between the sticks.
Jordan Henderson should slot back into his holding midfield role alongside Emre Can and Georginio Wijnaldum with the manager talking up his captain’s chances of playing despite his fitness not being at 100%.
The squad is looking much stronger again and we look good to go ahead of a pivotal game at Old Trafford.
Our predicted Liverpool XI:
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