Leeds United will welcome Liverpool at Elland Road on Sunday evening as both teams look to go all out in search of the three points. The Whites were held to a 1-1 draw away at Burnley in their last outing in the Premier League. Similarly, the Reds also dropped points before the international break when they could not manage to beat Chelsea and had to settle for a 1-1 statemate at Anfield. Hence, we can expect to witness an exciting showdown between two of the biggest clubs in English football at West Yorkshire this weekend.
Talking Tactics
Marcelo Bielsa could set his team up in a 4-1-4-1 formation and will instruct his players to press the opposition high up the field so that they can win possession back quickly and do some damage to them on the break.
Jurgen Klopp will once again opt for a 4-3-3 formation for this game. The German head coach could ask his players to keep hold of the ball and tire the Leeds players out before trying to expose their weaknesses on the counter.
Team News
Leeds United
Mateusz Klich, Robin Koch and Junior Firpo are all significant concerns ahead of this game. Raphinha will also miss out this weekend due to FIFA’s ‘five-day rule’.
Leeds United Predicted XI
Meslier, Ayling, Llorente, Struijk, Firpo, Phillips, James, Rodrigo, Dallas, Harrison, Bamford
Liverpool
Klopp will have to cope without the services of Roberto Firmino, Fabinho and Alisson Becker for this game because of the ‘five-day rule’ under FIFA Regulations. Harvey Elliott and Takumi Minamino are both major doubts for this contest at Elland Road.
Liverpool Predicted XI
Kelleher, Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson, Elliott, Henderson, Keita, Mane, Jota, Salah
Key Men
Leeds United
Patrick Bamford and Daniel James will have to carry most of Leeds’ goal-scoring workload this weekend. On the other end, Diego Llorente and Pascal Struijk can expect to have a busy evening against the Reds. Both of them will have to be at the top of their game if they are to restrict the Merseyside giants from scoring during the 90 minutes.
Liverpool
Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah and Diogo Jota will have to make sure that they can bang in enough goals for Liverpool to win this game. However, all eyes will be on how Caoimhin Kelleher performs in goal for the Reds now that Alisson Becker has been ruled out of this game.
Odds
Liverpool are 3/4 favorites to win this match while the draw has been priced at 16/5. The Whites are 10/3 underdogs to emerge victorious in front of their home fans at Elland Road this weekend.
