Due to the special constellation in the table, Liverpool FC are currently both the hunted and the hunter. Now a difficult away game awaits – but also the return of a key player
There they are again, the all-winners from the light blue district of Manchester: Pep Guardiola’s City, currently still two points behind Liverpool FC at the top of the Premier League table, but with a game in hand. The Sky Blues will virtually decide for themselves who will be top of the table.
Liverpool FC have no choice but to put pressure on the defending champions while they are still top of the table. The Reds open the matchday with a visit to Brentford on Saturday lunchtime – so they are in a position to leave City five points behind for the time being. Guardiola and Co. still have it in their own hands to overtake Liverpool, but they would have to win two games to do so
Klopp’s great respect for Brentford’s standards
LFC need to score at least two goals against Brentford FC on Saturday to create that kind of pressure, or so Jürgen Klopp believes: “How can you play 90 minutes against them without conceding a set-piece goal? That’s impossible,” joked the 56-year-old at the matchday press conference on Friday, without actually joking. And without wanting to reduce the Bees to their standard strength
However, just in time for one of the more unpleasant away games the Premier League has to offer – ManCity recently won 3-1 there – Klopp can once again rely on a man who almost guarantees goals: Mohamed Salah, who suffered a muscular injury during the Africa Cup, is back. “He’s been training fully, so he’s automatically an option,” revealed his coach. Salah last played for his club on January 1.
The game comes too soon for another player who makes Liverpool’s standards dangerous. Trent Alexander-Arnold, who has a damaged knee, has to miss out for the time being. Incidentally – as was reported here and there – this was not because, as Klopp brashly emphasized, his coaching team and he had put too much strain on the strong right-back too early in the 3-1 win against Burnley – whereupon he was set back in his previous recovery process and had to be substituted at half-time. It was a different injury, he said
