Preview: Liverpool vs. Tottenham
Liverpool welcome Tottenham Hotspur to Anfield on Sunday.
LIVERPOOL VS. TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR
| Sunday, May 5th |
Premier League | Anfield
4:30PM GMT/11:30AM EST
Three more to go. Liverpool welcome Spurs to Anfield for the 36th game week of the season. Thanks to last week’s results, there’s no concern about Liverpool losing their Champions League position, since Spurs have been mathematically eliminated from the fight.
We all know how Liverpool have been doing these last two weeks. I’m not going to rehash it here for this preview. ‘Not good’ is the long and short of it. They sit in third place at the moment, having all but conceded the title run to Arsenal and Manchester City.
Another blow for the Reds is that captain Virgil van Dijk hasn’t trained this whole last week, making it unlikely that he’ll be available to manage the backline on Sunday. Jarell Quansah will probably play alongside Ibrahima Konaté.
As for Spurs, they’ve picked up four points out of the possible 15 available to them since April. They are currently in the middle of a three game losing streak, including big losses to both Arsenal and Chelsea. As mentioned, it nuked their chances at a Champions League spot next season, so this game is pretty much dead rubber for them.
However, even though the stakes aren’t technically high, both teams will be looking for some redemption after season-endingly bad few weeks.
Predicted Liverpool Lineup (4-3-3)
Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Quansah, Konaté, Robertson; Szoboszlai, Endo, Mac Allister; Salah, Núñez, DÃaz
The usual crew of Joel Matip, Thiago Alcantara, Ben Doak, and Bobby Clark are still out injured. Virgil van Dijk hasn’t trained all week, and so he’s likely to miss this game. Finally, Diogo Jota probably won’t make it on time for Sunday.
For Spurs, Timo Werner, Ben Davies, Ryan Sessegnon, Manor Solomon, Destiny Udogie, and Fraser Forster are all unavailable.
What the Managers Had to Say
Jurgen Klopp: “So, I understand that Ange doesn’t think it’s a great moment because of their own expectations, but you can always see a clear footballing idea and that’s what they still kept. We will have to be prepared for that, we have to defend really compact, if you don’t do that then they’ll play through because the idea is really obvious and they work now together nearly a year.”
Ange Postecoglou: “It’s not easy going into a big club that has traditionally had a lot of success and has then gone through a really tough spell in terms of that, and then come in and transform a club the way [Klopp] did. It’s a credit to him, he’s an outstanding manager.”
The Officials
Referee: Paul Tierney. Assistants: Scott Ledger, Mat Wilkes. Fourth official: Tom Bramall. VAR: John Brooks. Assistant VAR: James Mainwaring.
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Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com
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