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9) Reds back on way to Wembley
The time when Liverpool fans would call Wembley “Anfield South” lies long in the past. Jürgen Klopp has concentrated his squad’s efforts on winning the Champions League and Premier League during his time in England, choosing to blood youth in the domestic cup competitions. Sunday’s Carabao Cup showpiece will be only the second English cup final Klopp has presided over, the last coming
in February 2016, when he had been in charge for barely four months. Liverpool lost that League Cup final to Manchester City on penalties and – of Klopp’s squad that day – only Jordan Henderson, James Milner, Roberto Firmino and Divock Origi remain. The overhaul that Klopp has carried out in those six years is reflected in names such as Simon Mignolet, Nathaniel Clyne, Alberto Moreno, Mamadou Sakho, Philippe Coutinho and Emre Can, all of them decent, talented players but expendable to a manager who has transformed the club and widened their horizons.
JB
10) Chelsea calling for shots?
Chelsea have had 20 shots on target and scored six goals in the Premier League this calendar year; Liverpool have had 19 shots on target and scored nine goals this week. While defensively the two teams have been comparable this season (Chelsea have conceded 17 goals to Liverpool’s 19, and 76 shots on target to Liverpool’s 72) the Reds’ attack is not so much streets ahead of their opponents’ as entire motorway networks more advanced. Meanwhile Jürgen Klopp said after Wednesday’s
thrashing of Leeds that in midfield “more often than not you need really fresh legs” and has been putting those words into practice – Liverpool’s two matches this week featured entirely different starting midfield threes, two of them later being substituted on each occasion. This makes it hard to guess whose legs will be freshest come Sunday but though the remainder of the team could feasibly be unchanged some kind of reshuffle here seems likely.
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From the guardian’s things to look out for.
