Liverpool face Roma in what would their third friendly of an intense six-day period after meeting AC Milan just two days ago. Liverpool have been fairly consistent thus far in the pre-season fixtures with no results coming as a shock to them. While Klopp will be happy with the preparations till now, they have had a few niggling injuries to deal with, hence having to utilise the same players repeatedly.
They were dealt a blow with the injury to probable No.1 Loris Karius as the former Mainz keeper broke his hand in training after an accidental collision with Lovren. Simon Mignolet will look to get up to speed as he will be reinstated between the posts. While it will come as a blow, Klopp will do well not to dwell on the situation much and look to raise the confidence of the much maligned Mignolet.
PREVIEW
Liverpool last played Roma in a competitive fixture in the 2002 Champions League but have come up against each other three times since then, with this clash set to be their fourth one. The first friendly came 12 years ago in the ‘Champions World Series’ tournament when the Reds claimed a 2-1 win at the Giants Stadium in New Jersey courtesy of goals from Djibril Cisse and Michael Owen. But more recently, Liverpool have played and lost twice to Roma on the US tours. The Reds will look to mark their first ever game at the impressive 46,800 capacity Busch stadium, which hosts just its fifth football match—with a better result than the last two.
Jurgen Klopp has been naming relatively stronger sides recently and with the season about to start in a couple of weeks’ time will look to give his main players more minutes as they look to get match-fit before the showdown with Arsenal. With only games against Barcelona and Mainz 05 left after this, they would want to be well tuned with each other.
PREDICTED LINE-UP
Liverpool are expected to line-up in a 4-2-3-1 formation with Mignolet in line for a start in goal with a back four of Clyne, Lovren, Klavan and Alberto Moreno. Clyne will hope to get more minutes as he is the undisputed right-back and the central defence pairing is expected to be the same with injuries cutting Klopp’s options short. Moreno will hope for a starting berth this time around.
Klopp might look to give Henderson and Milner a breather and Emre Can who has not featured till now might get a game. So Can and Grujic could form the double-pivot in the centre of the park. While the attacking trio will most likely consist of Coutinho, Firmino and Mane with Ings leading the line.
