Crystal Palace FC v Liverpool FC – Match Preview
Liverpool travel down to south London tomorrow to face Crystal Palace in the early Premiership kick-off. Following an impressive dismantling of Manchester City at Anfield on Wednesday night, Jürgen Klopp’s team need to pick up all three points if they intend to make a last gasp push for a fourth placed finish.
Klopp mentioned in his pre-match press conference that consistency has not been Liverpool’s strongest point this season. Somewhat of an understatement, I fear. This has definitely been the factor that has dogged the team’s progress this term. They need to “stay angry” as the manager put it. He’s totally correct. The problem with this LFC team over recent times has been that they’ve been a bit “soft”. Sunday presents a great chance to address this.
Crystal Palace has long been a bit of a bogey team for Liverpool. Always difficult to beat, and with Alan Pardew as manager, they have someone who knows his football. He can always find a solution against so-called better opposition. Granted they haven’t had the best of runs lately, but this makes no difference to me. I see they haven’t won a league game this year. And, so what? On the flip side, they’ve beaten Southampton, Stoke and Tottenham in the FA Cup so they can’t be that bad. Yannick Bolasie is also back playing, so this will give them a boost.
Lucas Leiva is out after injuring himself taking his penalty against Manchester City in the Capital One Cup final last weekend. Sounds odd, but hey, stranger things have happened! Daniel Sturridge and Mamadou Sakho should be available again, so too should Philippe Coutinho. In a perfect world, I’d like to see all three start. In addition, Jon Flanagan keeping his place over Alberto Moreno, who has not displayed the best of form in the last month or so.
The usual midfield trio of Jordan Henderson, Emre Can and James Milner should be sufficient and a front line of Coutinho, Sturridge and Roberto FIrmino. It’s worth noting that Adam Lallana put in a good shift in the week so he may well retain his place ahead of Coutinho. In any case, it’s nice for Klopp to have the choice for a change.
To get anything out of the game tomorrow, Liverpool really do need to show some bite. Stay angry as Klopp put it. The record against the Eagles at Selhurst Park makes so-so reading. Over the last five league meetings: W2, D1, L2. Not impressive by any means, but then not a total disaster either. In fact, it’s actually better than I imagined.
A win would put Liverpool in seventh place, three points behind Manyoo and six behind West Ham. Nine games to go. We’re nearing the business end of the season and this is the time for the team to show that this is exactly what they mean… Business.
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