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| image:liverpoolecho.co.uk |
Injuries for Liverpool mean they are unable to call upon Mamadou Sakho who is out for the foreseeable future. Mario Balotelli is also suspected to be unavailable as he is out at present with an illness. Finally Adam Lallana will be missing as he nurses a groin injury. Positively for the Reds, Jordan Ibe is back and should be available to start.
For Newcastle, manager John Carver has several injury woes to deal with as the likes of Alnwick, Haidara and Tiote are all out long term. The boss is also unable to call upon De Jong who is recovering from a collapsed lung.
Liverpool currently find themselves 6th in the league having won four out of their last six games. The Reds are two points behind Southampton in 5th prior to kick off and will be hoping for a favourable result in the Manchester derby. However, if either side wins there’s only a points difference in what the Reds need to make up to break back into the top four, so no, I do not want Manchester United to win.
Newcastle are currently 13th in the league having lost five out of their last six league games. The Magpies have been struggling of late and with a temporary manager, appear to be struggling to find the form they maintained at the start of the season.
The last time the two sides met was in November last year when Perez grabbed a winner for Newcastle in the 73rd minute. Newcastle’s last trip to Anfield was one to forget as despite receiving an own goal courtesy of Martin Skrtel they had two men sent off and lost the game 2-1. Daniel Agger and Daniel Sturridge were on the score sheet that day.
Stat Sandwich
• Jordan Henderson has scored four goals in his last five league appearances.
• Newcastle have only scored four times in their last eight league games.
• The Reds are unbeaten in their last 19 home matches against Newcastle in the league.
On paper this should be an easy victory for the Reds who will cling on to a lingering hope of finishing in the top four. However, the Reds have not played very well at all in their last three games in all comps, a bit of magic from Coutinho was all that saved our FA Cup dream while we faltered against United and crumbled under Arsenal.
The return of Emre Can will go some way to shoring up the defence but the Reds are still struggling somewhat to really stamp their presence in attack. Despite this the Reds probably will be fine, as we have done in several matches this season we will struggle to find an end product in the box and instead score a worldy. It just frustrates me that we don’t threaten with our strikers and in fact it worries me that such a reliance is placed on a lone Daniel Sturridge who is, as we know, injury prone.
I shall be placing a bet but I’m not sure what on yet so follow me on Twitter to get the deets - @LFCKirstyLFC.
In the meantime I hope you liked the preview and as always, enjoy the match folks, wherever you are watching!