By Aaron Conlon
Following Liverpool’s first win in four on Thursday night against Atalanta in Bergamo, despite being chucked out of Europe, Jurgen Klopp will be hoping to carry forward this winning momentum into Liverpool’s next Premier League fixture away at Fulham.
“I loved our game anyway, especially the start. I loved the commitment and the desire, the power we developed in this game”.
Jurgen Klopp Atalanta Post Game Press Conference
Liverpool will be hoping they can spring into life and put pressure onto leaders Manchester City after numerous underwhelming performances have handed the champions the lead in the title race.
“Now we can focus on the league and that’s what we will do. We have a few days to recover, we will do that, and then will travel the day after tomorrow to London and will play Fulham, which will be tricky but we will give our absolute all. That’s our competition now. I saw a good reaction from my side, we had not a great week last week obviously. This, if we want, was the start for the rest of the season with a good result and a good performance and that’s how we see it.”
Fulham v Liverpool Match Preview
Fulham have won three of their last five games at Craven Cottage and have lost six times so far this season at home. Whilst Liverpool have struggled to pick up the full three points at Craven Cottage recently, with the Reds drawing their last three games away at Fulham.
Liverpool must keep a close eye on former Man Utd man Andreas Pereira, who has four goal contributions in his last four games and when speaking to The Fulham Website, he said: “We’re confident now, I think we can get a good result on Sunday”.
After Fulham’s impressive performance at Anfield early on this season and considering Liverpool’s current form, the home side have every right to believe they can come away with all 3 points on Sunday.
Klopp boasts a relatively fit squad in comparison to some parts of this campaign with Conor Bradley, Ben Doak, Thiago and Joel Matip being the only absentees.
Liverpool will be able to start their first choice back line and goalkeeper for only the fourth time this season if they wish to do so and will be hoping that this possibility will reassure the defensive line, with Fulham scoring three times at Anfield in the reverse fixture and Klopp’s side having only kept five clean sheets in their last 23 games in all competitions.
However, Liverpool’s defensive woes will not be their only form of concern as The Reds have only scored one non-penalty goal in their last four games, with that goal being Luis Diaz’s opener against Man United.
However, Diogo Jota returning to full fitness will be a major boost for the reds going forwards, with the Portuguese forward having the best big chance conversion rate out of all of Liverpool’s attackers and averaging 0.74 goals per 90’. Similarly to Liverpool, Fulham themselves are struggling defensively, only keeping five clean sheets in their last 22 games, giving hope that the Reds will rediscover their goal scoring form and get back to firing on all cylinders.
Predicted XI:
Alisson Becker, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Jarell Quansah, Virgil Van Dijk, Andy Robertson, Wataru Endo, Alexis Mac Allister, Dominik Szoboszlai, Luis Diaz, Cody Gakpo, Mo Salah.
With Konate playing the full 90 minutes for three games in a row, it shouldn’t come as a surprise if he is rested in place of Jarell Quansah, who has only played once since Konate’s re-emergence from injury. After being rested midweek, Wataru Endo may well retake his holding position in midfield, allowing Mac Allister to take up a much more advanced role. With Gakpo being one of Liverpool’s brighter attacking sparks of late, him retaining his central role over the out of form Darwin Nunez and the returning Jota, shouldn’t come as a major shock either
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