CHELSEA VS. LIVERPOOL
| Saturday, October 4th |
Premier League | Stamford Bridge
5:30PM BST/12:30PM EST
Both Chelsea and Liverpool are a bit looking forward to the international break, with both sides coming into this one underperforming.
Chelsea are in poor form with strange issues, and Enzo Maresca will be without a number of players or much of a leadership group. Cole Palmer is unavailable for this weekend’s match, as he remains sidelined with injuries. Though Maresca didn’t specify beyond Palmer as to which “six or seven players” he would be without for Saturday’s match, we can assume this list includes Levi Colwill, Wesley Fofana (depending on concussion protocols), Andrey Santos, Dario Essugo, Liam Delap, and perhaps Tosin Adarabioyo.
While Liverpool can definitely discuss stupid red cards, Chelsea can point to a series of those. Trevoh Chalobah is suspended for this one after picking up a red card against Brighton, their third match in all competitions that have seen a Chelsea player sent off. Despite these absences, the Blues have a wealth of players to choose from given their much-discussed recruitment policy.
Chelsea fought hard against Benfica midweek, securing a win at home to get their first Champions League points on the board. In the Premier League they have lost to Brighton and Manchester United in their last two, drew against Crystal Palace and Brentford, and beat West Ham United and Fulham. The Reds should be Chelsea’s first difficult test in the league thus far this season after their relatively easy start, but Chelsea have made things hard for themselves — and Liverpool perhaps feel like less of a challenge than it looked like the Reds would be before the last two showings.
Maresca’s changing line-ups make this one hard to predict, though in defense the manager does have Benoit Badiashile available.
Moises Caicedo, Chelsea’s player of the month for the last month, should be key to their performance, and Reece James should be fit to attack from the back. Enzo Fernández has looked busy this season without necessarily always impressing, and João Pedro has made an impact lately as well. It’s worth mentioning that Chelsea inexplicably have Alejandro Garnacho to call upon should be be needed, but there are frankly so many Chelsea players that it’s hard to predict what we’ll face.
Predicted Liverpool Lineup (4-3-3)
Mamardashvili; Bradley, Konaté, Van Dijk, Kerkez; Wirtz, Gravenberch, Szoboszlai; Salah, Isak, Gakpo
As we know, Alisson is out injured for about six weeks, so we will see the Georgian keeper Giorgi Mamardashvili make his Premier League debut. Both Hugo Ekitiké (who went off with injury in the second half on Wednesday) adn Federico Chiesa face late fitness tests for this one, though Arne Slot told the press that both were expected to train today for at least the second time since their respective injuries. Of course, the Reds are also without Giovanni Leoni.
Despite his mixed (and recently very poor) form this season, Ibrahima Konaté will likely play in this one, as Slot seems to be going with his first choice central defensive pairing regardless of outcome. Who the manager goes with at right back is a flip of the coin, though we’re unlikely to see the rotation that saw Jeremie Frimpong in for Mohamed Salah midweek — I would bet the league phase away was seen as an opportunity to test something for the upcoming AFCON days. Dominik Szoboszlai put in less than a great performance at right back on Tuesday, even if you (like me) have a lot of questions about the penalty decision in the end. Someone will play right back, and hopefully that player will put in a solid performance.
One Alexis Mac Allister or Dominik Szoboszlai will likely start in a midfield alongside Ryan Gravenberch and Florian Wirtz. Through Wirtz has been on the receiving end of much discourse, in my eyes he’s been performing quite well and is perhaps unlucky not to have a goal and is very, very unlucky to not have a couple assists — his teammates have conspired to put quite a few chances wide following quite smart balls from Wirtz. Mac Allister, for his part, has seemed out of form, though the coach does appear to want to play him into form as well; Szoboszlai, despite his challenges midweek, has been one of Liverpool’s strongest performers.
Given Ekitiké’s injury concerns we should assume limited minutes from the most in-form attacking option this season, with Alexander Isak likely to start and see Ekitiké come in off the bench should he be fit. Mohamed Salah was rested and should come in fresh, and is one of many who feel out of form thus far. It’s been a weird season with very specific and much-discussed challenges both on and off the pitch, and the Reds are, many of them, struggling to find their feet. Maybe this one will inexplicably be the one they do.
Liverpool have a day more rest than the turnaround for the last weekend (and a day more rest than Chelsea, who played on Wednesday), but the Reds had to travel to Türkiye — quite the distance — on top of two consecutive trips to London. It’s really hard to imagine a worse week of football to play.
European aways are a massive challenge, and Crystal Palace are quite the test at the moment, but Liverpool’s form in the past week especially is worrying: the major issue in attack is a failure to connect in possession, which seems to have gotten worse than the opening few weeks (when it was mostly the final third rather than misplaced passes in the middle and defensive third). The Reds have also been conceding on set plays or following mistakes, which feel like much more controllable elements than being simply outplayed. The issue here is the lack of training to address the problems in a situation where there’s always another game on the horizon.
Though “yearning for the international break” is hard to overlook, Liverpool will hope to escape with three points from the meeting of two out-of-form teams who have a lot to prove. In his pre-match press conference Slot was keen to emphasize the effort levels on Tuesday, even if the result was poor: the Liverpool head coach, like me, seems not to think the side deserved a loss even if perhaps they would not have “deserved” a win, either — a major difference from the display against Crystal Palace, and perhaps that is worth noting. Indeed, Slot mentioned specifically the moment in the 18th minute when his player stayed on his feet despite feeling a foul in the penalty box immediately prior to his opponent going “to the ground as if it was the worst hit he ever had” for the penalty at the other end. Football, eh? Liverpool need a lot of things, but a bit of good luck would be nice as well.
With luck in mind, Slot also specifically mentioned set plays: the Reds are creating a lot of chances, but not scoring them, a major difference from last season. Small improvements there would make a massive difference.
The Managers Have Their Say
Arne Slot: “If the reaction is after you lose against [Crystal] Palace you lose another game, you can argue if that is positive. But I saw a team that wanted to try, from the first second until the last second, everything to get a result. Different to the Palace game, we won much more second balls, we were – like in the Palace game – close to a result. And I’ve said many times that last season the margins are so small, and that’s the same this season again and we are trying to find the way that is not about luck or bad luck or is not about a set-piece goal scored or against.”
Enzo Maresca: “I really trust all the players we have and at the moment we have four or five defenders out, so we will try to adapt and find the right solutions for tomorrow’s game.”
The Officials
Referee: Anthony Taylor Assistants: Gary Beswick & Adam Nunn Fourth Official: Farai Hallam VAR: Craig Pawson Assistant VAR: Adrian Holmes
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