Reds Prepare For High Stakes November Fixtures

Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images

Liverpool continued their winning ways in October, but face a tough test against Manchester City in November.

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Looking Back - October

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Liverpool could have broken records in October had they managed a win against arch-rivals Manchester United at Old Trafford. Unfortunately, they only came away with a draw, leaving them one short of Manchester City’s 18 game winning streak. Still, small disappointments aside, the Reds escaped a potentially difficult month of fixtures in the Premier League against Leicester City, Manchester United, and Tottenham Hotspur with seven points and a six point lead at the top of the table. Their 10 league games have yielded an impressive 28 points.

The Champions League results were similarly kind to them. After losing their opening group stage match to Napoli in September, Klopp’s Reds rallied and put four goals past FC Salzburg and Racing Genk, coming away the victors in both games. They’ve now reached the halfway point in the group stage, and they sit in second place, one point behind Napoli in group E.

Not to be outdone by their first team counterparts, the kids ended the month by delighting Anfield with a thrilling 10-goal stunner of a Carabao Cup match against Arsenal that saw them advance to the next round after a penalty shoot-out. Divock Origi did the business, continuing his pattern of scoring late, important goals to get that crucial fifth for the Reds and extend the game into penalties. Caoimhin Kelleher made the decisive save of Dani Ceballos’s penalty, and then Curtis Jones converted his own to ensure the victory.

Liverpool’s 18 regulation-time goals in all competitions this month came from a variety of sources. Mohamed Salah led the pack with four, while Sadio Mané and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain both bagged three. James Milner was on target with both of his penalties this month, and Divock Origi’s League Cup brace also put another pair in his account. The British triumvirate of Jordan Henderson, Adam Lallana, and Andy Robertson each scored one of their own. And an own goal from Arsenal’s Shkodran Mustafi rounded out the scoring.

Despite the strong results, it should be a bit concerning that Liverpool didn’t manage to pick up a single clean sheet in the six games they battled through. They conceded 12 goals — including those five against Arsenal — in all competitions and had to come from behind to pick up points against both Manchester United and Spurs and to advance past Arsenal. You may also notice that Roberto Firmino is nowhere to be found on the score sheet.

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Looking Forward - November

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Even with an international break stuck in there, the Reds will have another six games to contend with in November — the biggest of which will be the heavyweight encounter with Manchester City at Anfield.

Despite that, the rest of their league matches, on paper, aren’t as difficult as the ones they faced in October. They’ll start off this Saturday morning playing away to Aston Villa, then it’s City the following week, a trip to Crystal Palace after the international break, and then they’ll finish up the month hosting Brighton & Hove Albion.

Midweek, in between those games, they’ll also have to face the return fixtures against both Racing Genk and Napoli. That will leave only a trip to play FC Salzburg in December to round out the group stage of the competition.

Here’s what Liverpool’s November full schedule looks like:

Saturday, Nov 2nd - Aston Villa (a)
Tuesday, Nov 5th - Racing Genk (h)
Sunday, Nov 10th - Manchester City (h)
Saturday, Nov 23rd - Crystal Palace (a)
Wednesday, Nov 27th - Napoli (h)
Saturday, Nov 30th - Brighton (h)

Sound off in the comments with your predictions for the month to come. Will Liverpool remain undefeated in league? How many points do they pick up from their four games?

Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com