The Details
Venue – Anfield, Liverpool
Referee – Kevin Friend
Date & Time – Tuesday, December 26th @ 17:30 GMT
Current Odds – Liverpool 1/7, Draw 13/2, Swansea 16/1
Form
Liverpool Form
Liverpool have had a bit of a stop-start month this December. Impressive wins at home to Spartak and away to Bournemouth have been overshadowed by two poor home draws against West Brom and Everton. Although, it has to be said that luck just was not on their side in those games. The Reds have been dominating, generally, but not making their control count. A cracking game at the Emirates last Friday ended in a 3-3 draw. Liverpool should have been three or four ahead before Arsenal managed to create any meaningful opportunities but that’s how it’s been for the Reds this season. They played well at Arsenal and if not for the spaghetti-wrists of our ‘keeper and five minutes of a collapse at the back they would have won comfortably.
Swansea Form
Leon Britton is the caretaker player-manager for the Swans after the dismissal of Paul Clement earlier this month, though, he has made it clear that he is not currently interested in taking the role on in the long-term. Swansea managed a 1-1 home draw against an in-form Crystal Palace on Saturday in Britton’s first game in charge. Before that, Swansea lost at Goodison Park and were heavily beaten at home to Manchester City. Their last victory was a 1-0 home win against West Brom on December 9th.
Team News
Liverpool Team News
Clyne is unavailable until February with a back injury. Jordan Henderson misses out with a thigh injury he picked up in the early stages of the game at Arsenal on Friday. Thankfully, Joel Matip has returned to full training but the Leicester City game is a more likely target for him to make his return to the starting eleven. Moreno (ankle) is still out and will be for another couple of weeks, at least.
Daniel Sturridge is still a doubt with a tight hamstring while Grujic has a wrist injury that could keep him from a place on the bench.
In goals, Klopp has a decision to make. Mignolet was badly at fault for Xhaka’s strike at the Emirates and this could well prompt Klopp to try Karius in goals again on Tuesday. He’s also bound to do a bit of shuffling up front with Salah and Firmino possibly being rested.
Liverpool have no suspensions for this game.
Liverpool’s Top 3 Rated Players this season (WhoScored.com)
- P. Coutinho ———— 7.94
- M. Salah —————- 7.64
- R. Firmino ————– 7.36
Swansea Team News
Swansea are missing Bony and Bartley, while Leroy Fer, Routledge and Ki Sung-yeung are also doubtful for this game. Leon Britton, Mesa and Kyle Naughton all have knocks and it remains to be seen if they will be passed fit for this game.
Swansea’s Top 3 Rated Players this season (WhoScored.com)
- L. Fabianski ————- 6.98
- K. Naughton ————- 6.95
- A. Mawson ————— 6.78
Predicted XIs
Liverpool XI (4-3-3) – Mignolet; Gomez, Lovren, Klavan, Robertson; Milner(c), Wijnaldum, Coutinho; Mané, Solanke, Firmino
Swansea XI (4-3-3) – Fabianski; Rangel, Fernandez(c), Mawson, Olsson; Clucas, Mesa, Carroll; Dyer, Abraham, Ayew
When they last met
Swansea have a respectable record against Liverpool in recent years, winning two of the last five league meetings. They last met in January. Swansea won 3-2 at Anfield with Sigurdsson grabbing a winner after Liverpool had clawed their way back from two down. Liverpool won 2-1 at the Liberty Stadium in the earlier fixture, last season.
Prediction
Liverpool 3 – 0 Swansea
Liverpool should have far too much for Swansea to cope with on Tuesday. Yes, that doesn’t always mean Liverpool go and take the win they often deserve, however, the gulf in class is likely to be clearly evident in this game. It’s hard to predict goalscorers for this game as I feel the frontline will be meddled with. However, if Solanke gets a start I think we may well see his first Liverpool league goal 🙂
Merry Christmas, folks 🙂
** Please note – “xA” in the Form Stats tables symbolises “expected goals against”, NOT “expected assists”
Swansea is at the foot of the table but dont get ahead of ourselves, bear the brunt? They are walkovers now? Klopp with his 2 shitty keepers and “best 5 defenfers” would absolutely sink them? It has now come to this, world class manager, can’t fix a defense, can’t get a half decent keeper and now resort to bullying relegation team.
Yes be could go on to absolutely hammer the Swans but then what? What does it tells us from the past? Klopp and his garbage defense and goalkeepers would absolutely not learned anything and would go on to have another “Arsena”, that you could be sure and bet on.
Klopp says he would leave if he does not win a title with us, well why don’t he saves us the trouble and just do it now, name me just one, one team that can win anything with the likes of our bunch of crappy back 6 (including Karius). Let someone who actually wants to win things do your job