Crystal Palace vs Liverpool: Preview, Team News, and Ways to Watch
The Reds take on their former bogey team away at Selhurst Park as the The Premier League returns after the international break
Crystal Palace vs Liverpool
| Saturday, March 31st |
Premier League | Selhurst Park
12:30 PM GMT/08:30 AM EST
Tomorrow’s fixture marks Jürgen Klopp’s 100th Premier League game as Liverpool look to do the double over Crystal Palace for the first time since the 1997 – 1998 season. Liverpool have only experienced two league defeats since October and have won six of their nine Premier League games since January. Mohamed Salah will look to continue his incredible run of form and currently sits atop the Premier League goal scoring table with 28 PL goals.
Roy Hodgson has been able to improve the Eagles overall performance; however, the relegation threat remains for the London club who are currently in 16th place on the Premier League table. Their 2 – 0 win over Huddersfield Town before the international break was the first win for Palace since the 13th of January when they beat Burnley at Selhurst Park. Luka Milivojevic has scored eight goals for the Eagles this season and along with Andros Townsend is the most used member of the squad, with both having featured in 29 of the club’s 31 Premier League matches so far.
Christian Benteke, Martin Kelly and Mamadou Sakho are the ex-Reds amongst the Eagles and Nathaniel Clyne is an ex-Eagle.
Projected Liverpool Lineup (4-3-3)
Karius; Alexander-Arnold, Lovren, Van Dijk, Robertson; Milner, Wijnaldum, Oxlade-Chamberlain; Salah, Firmino, Mané
Joe Gomez sustained an ankle injury in England’s friendly match against Holland during the international break and is likely to miss tomorrow’s match. However, Dejan Lovren returned to training after sustaining a similar injury. Having been sent home from the Germany camp, Emre Can is also a doubt with a back injury. Nathaniel Clyne, may finally make his return tomorrow against his former club as the right-back looks to play his first match of the season after a lengthy absence. Trent Alexander-Arnold is fit after missing a match for the Under-21 England side during the break and Andrew Robertson is available after recovering from a dead leg.
Roy Hodgson’s team injury woes have lessened but Jeffrey Schlupp, James Tomkins ,Wilfried Zaha remain a doubt while Alexander Sørloth will be a doubt after missing the Huddersfield Town match due to a hamstring injury. Jason Puncheon, Bakary Sako and Scott Dann however remain on the injured list and seem likely that they will miss out on the rest of the season.
What the Managers Had to Say
Jürgen Klopp: There is no ‘balance’ – we play Crystal Palace with all we have, with all intensity and all concentration. For a player or manager of Liverpool, the whole year everything is at least about qualification for the Champions League. Both games are about qualification for the Champions League; one is for next year, one is for this year. That’s the only difference. But they have the same importance, so no difference for us. They are in good shape, even when they lost a few games. Roy is doing a fantastic job there; it was the most difficult job to take, I think. They had no goals and no points. What he did there is outstanding, I’m not surprised about that. It will be a tough fight. They fight for the league, we fight for the Champions League. Hopefully everybody can see we fight for the Champions League.
Roy Hodgson: On Mohamed Salah and Liverpool - He’s certainly showing that he is one of the best in the world this season. I’ve never worked with him so can only talk from having watched him. He must be delighted to be performing in that top bracket of players. The only way you can prevent quality players is through the collective work of the team.
The Officials
Referee: Neil Swarbrick Assistants: Adam Nunn, Adrian Holmes Fourth official: Kevin Friend
Kickoff is set for 12:30PM GMT/08:30AM EST tomorrow, and television listings for the match can be found on LiveSoccerTV. In the meantime, we’ll be keeping you updated with all the build-up to the game, including team news as it’s released, our live matchday thread, and post-match recaps from The Liverpool Offside staff. If you want to join the discussion, sign up for an SB Nation account to have your say on the action as it happens.
Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com
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