Crystal Palace recently got off to a good start with a 2-0 win over newly promoted Fulham away. Now it's our turn to face them in their home soil. The Reds should be in a good momentum after starting strong with a 4-0 comfortable rout of West Ham United. Following the results over the last couple of games, It will be up to Liverpool to close in the gap on Manchester City following their 6-1 thrashing against Huddersfield. Also newsflash, Manchester United had a shock 3-2 loss against Brighton and Hove Albion with the latter beating them again after beating them 3 months earlier. Elsewhere, Chelsea and Tottenham won their respective games.
Last 5 meetings with Crystal Palace with Brackets for Reds Goalscorers):
29 Oct 2016: Crystal Palace 2-4 Liverpool (Emre Can, Dejan Lovren, Roberto Firmino, Joel Matip) - Premier League
23 Apr 2017: Liverpool 1-2 Crystal Palace (Philip Coutinho) - Premier League
19 Jul 2017: Liverpool 2-0 Crystal Palace (Dominic Solanke, Divock Origi) PL Asia Trophy
19 Aug 2017: Liverpool 1-0 Crystal Palace (Sadio Mane) Premier League
31 Mar 2018: Crystal Palace 1-2 Liverpool (Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah) - Premier League
Frankly speaking, although Liverpool has gotten wins against Palace, they are still a especially difficult team to play against, whether at home or away. However with former Reds Manager Hodgson at the helm, that could be an interesting game as usual.
My starting 11 Predictions:
4-3-3.
Please note that the players I picked, not necessary that all will be picked.
Goalkeeper: Alisson
Selecting the Goalkeeper is pretty much a no-brainer with our new Number 1 Alisson in goal.
Right Back: Trent Alexander Arnold
The ever maturing right back Trent Alexander-Arnold has always been an excellent support of the attack and defense. So Trent's an obvious choice.
Center Back Pairing: Virgil Van Dijk and Joel Matip
The selection of Virgil is as usual. However his partner can be an interesting choice. Although Joe Gomez is ready to step up to the playing field as a potential partner, it'll be quite ideal if Joe Matip also gets a start until Lovren returns to pair with Virgil Van Dijk. Therefore, my ideal pick would be the Cameroonian. For now we need a good depth of Center backs and keeping Joel Matip fit with some games in his belt would be essential. Trust me, he needs it.
Left Back: Andrew Robertson
The bargain buy is an obvious picking over Moreno, not much needed to say about it.
Holding 6: Fabinho
He'll definitely fill in the position of a holding midfielder, the job that Gini Wijnaldum fared well in last week in his absence. He did not play in the first game so expect Fabinho to make a full debut.
Left Midfield: Naby Keita
The left-sided complete midfielder can dominate with just his presence and technique alone. He can pull back or support the attack if need be.
Right Midfield: James Milner
No doubt this guy will be our midfield machine on the right hand side. Plays nearly like a Right Winger with his fast enduring runs even at that age and would definitely play well for this match. It is highly likely I feel that James Milner will be the primary starter and captain over Jordan Henderson but the latter would definitely be on the bench. However I wouldn't mind the option of Xherdan Shaqiri starting in his place.
Left Wing Forward: Sadio Mane
The penalties that he has been taking has been doing him a lot of good in terms of his confidence and morale, no wonder he let loose a nice brace against West Ham. He'll have to come in here.
Striker: Firmino / Daniel Sturridge
This is a difficult one as Firmino is more like the Attacking Driver than a goal scorer which synergizes with his fellow attacking buddies. Whereas Daniel Sturridge has been extremely sharp and on crazy hot form ever since the pre-season. Starting him would also be a good choice provided he doesn't get injured. But for sure be in the starting line-up at least as a super sub as he did against West Ham.
Right Wing Forward: Mohamed Salah
Things got off to a relatively quieter start for the Egyptian so far but it does not hide the fact that with his fellow frontline attackers, he is a huge threat to many top sides. Many have fallen to just his attacking prowess alone. He will definitely try to go for at least one goal as he usually does.
BENCH SUBSTITUTES
Loris Karius - in a case that things go tits up with Alisson, Loris should be on standby but I highly doubt that will be the case.
Jordan Henderson - Henderson came in for Firmino to give the former some additional game time. His defensive play would be handy to see games out.
Joe Gomez - Joe proved himself as effective against West Ham, definitely can sub in for an attacker to shore up the defense.
Daniel Sturridge - Master Super Sub, if he needs to pull off a magical moment, Daniel would definitely try to do that, with the help of his new brother redman Keita.
Gini Wijnaldum - Still highly dependable, Gini would be an ideal choice to sub in for Keita or Fabinho if they get tired.
Xherdan Shaqiri - Xherdan would be a good choice to sub in for Salah or Mane to maintain the flow of attack. However, having him start over Milner I feel, wouldn't be a bad idea either.
Nathaniel Clyne - On hand for Trent if things go awry.
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