Although they’ll be at home this time around, Liverpool go into their meeting with Crystal Palace on Sunday in pretty much the same situation they were in when they traveled to West Bromwich Albion last weekend — with Manchester United and Arsenal in hot pursuit of their place in the top four and holding matches in hand, the only option is to win.
Which, to be fair, is something they’ve been quite good at lately. Winning five their last seven in the Premier League and drawing the other two, the Reds have now well and truly put a terrible string of results following the turn of the New Year behind them to keep their Champions League ambitions alive. Finally finding a way to get his side to win ugly, Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has started to shake the lower table hoodoo that’s plagued them this season with a come from behind victory over Burnley FC and a squeaker against the Baggies last weekend going a long way towards calming the nerves of Kopites around the world.
Roberto Firmino, who has found the net in his last two outings against Palace, has scored the Reds winner two weeks on the hop and will keep his place up from with compatriot Philippe Coutinho and one of Divock Origi or Daniel Sturridge joining the Brazilians up top. Moving back from there, things get a bit shakey; both Adam Lallana and Jordan Henderson and still sidelined and now there’s doubts over whether or not Lucas will be fit enough to line up beside Emre Can and Georginio Wijnaldum in the center of the park. Things get even worse from there with both Joel Matip and Ragnar Klavan carrying knocks — something that could force Klopp to call Joe Gomez in to the starting eleven.
“It’s not 100 per cent that Lucas cannot play, it’s not 100 per cent that Joel cannot play, it’s not 100 per cent that Ragnar cannot play. But they are not in training in the moment, so that’s not too cool,” said the German, hinting that he could call on the kid to plug the gap. “Joe Gomez played on Monday, U23s, again [he] did well, made big steps in the last few weeks, so maybe we have to try this pair,” mused the Reds manager. “We will see, I don’t know in the moment.”
That, obviously, is a concern. History might be leaning against Eagles boss Sam Allardyce, who has has never won at Anfield, but the Croydon club, much like their hosts, are in a fine vein of form at the moment with five wins in their last seven outings. The Reds defense is a concern on the best of days, but with Loic Remy coming back in to contention and Christian Benteke looking to prove a point on his first return to Merseyside since leaving over the summer, this is not the kind of clash where you want to have your first choice defensive duo separated. Couple all of that with the fact that Palace have come away successful from their last two visits and things are even more worrisome.
But, really, when are things perfect? With Mane out for the season and Henderson likely to join him, we’ve already got problems. What’s another one for the pile? Our chances of qualifying for the Champions League next season are still in our hands despite United sitting only six points off of us with a pair of matches in hand. We can moan about our problems or we can go out there and prove that we can overcome them.
