12:30. Wolves. Eurgh.
Still, we can’t complain when Liverpool are at the top of their game. For those unable to catch coverage of the clash on TNT Sports there are some superb cyber monday vpn deals just waiting to be taken advantage of to ensure every Red can relax watching the best team in the land strut their stuff on the pitch in mid-September.
No matter whether it’s an out-of-market football match, supporters can use VPNs to keep track of the side’s progress throughout the 2023/24 campaign!
Jurgen Klopp has already made it clear just how much he despises an early kick-off time. The German’s not wrong to feel that way either given how such fixture times seem to sap the life out of atmospheres – not to mention the quality of Liverpool’s performances.
Still, it’s there in the diary and there’s nothing anyone can do about it. Perhaps it might not even bother a side enjoying such a rich of vein of form as the Reds, with the German tactician’s men having hoovered up a whopping 10 points from an available 12, beating Aston Villa, Newcastle United, Bournemouth and drawing against Chelsea.
If you’d offered any Liverpool fan north of 7 points, one might imagine you’d have had your hand ripped clean off.
10 points, third in the Premier League table on goal difference with the second-best defence in the English top-flight as things currently stand.
It’s not hard to see why Phil McNulty is backing Liverpool as his second-choice favourites to win the title on BBC Sport: “I had a feeling before the start of the season that we would see a rejuvenated Liverpool this season with a midfield rebuild and an attack that always looks full of goals. The early signs suggest I may have been right.
“The goals are always there but they look refreshed – “reloaded” to use Jurgen Klopp’s phrase – and Hungarian Dominik Szoboszlai looks a superb addition at £65m with some outstanding early displays and a goal against Aston Villa.
“I put Liverpool second behind Manchester City in my pre-season predictions so I’m sticking with that.”
It must be emphasised that it’s still early days in the campaign, with plenty of twists and turns sure to come, as they inevitably do. One such twist we’ll be hoping to see confirmed as just a narrow meander, as opposed to a sharp fork in the road, will be the extent of Trent Alexander-Arnold’s injury, with tests set to determine just how long we’ll be without our chief creativity monster.
Fingers, toes, absolutely anything crossed on that point! At the very least, we will have the time afforded by the most timely international break to hopefully nurture our No.66 back to full health ahead of the upcoming trip to the Molineux Stadium.
READ MORE: ‘Outstanding’ Liverpool player just blew away several commentators with Villa performance
Wolves (A): What to expect?
One win and three losses hardly paints the picture of a side gunning for a mid-table place.
That’s far from surprising of course given the turmoil that framed the club’s pre-season preparations with Julen Lopetegui departing ahead of the campaign citing financial concerns at the side.
With key men Ruben Neves and Raul Jimenez heading to Saudi Arabia and Fulham respectively, you could hardly blame Wanderers fans for feeling a little twitchy.
That said, we’d be foolish to expect a routine win away from home, especially with Gary O’Neill now holding the reins.
Fans may remember the former Bournemouth boss for securing an impressive 1-0 win over us last term back in March – a huge improvement on the 9-0 drubbing Liverpool had inflicted on the Cherries when Scott Parker had still been in charge.
That said, there will be no such concerns over a lack of energy or dynamism in our midfield this time around following our extensive efforts in the summer window, so we’d be massively surprised to see similar concerns of lethargy dominate the column inches come the trip to the West Midlands on 16th September.
#Ep89 of The Empire of the Kop Podcast: EOTK Insider with Neil Jones🎙️