Strongest Liverpool line-up To Play Against Hull City

Liverpool host Hull City on new year’s day in an order to get their top four/title challenge back on track at Anfield on Wednesday. Steve Bruce’s men come into the game at the end of a majestic 6-0 win against Fulham at the KC stadium while Brendan Rodgers’ side who were at the zenith of the EPL table at Christmas suddenly find themselves out of the top four and Champions League places after two straight defeats in as many games against Manchester City and Chelsea.

The Reds have won eight of their last nine games at home soil and will be looking to keep building a fortress at Anfield as the season prolongs. Steve Bruce’s side shocked the Reds at the KC stadium earlier this season and would be looking to secure the double over the Giants from Merseyside. Can Brendan Rodgers’ men avoid the reversal for the third consecutive game in the running or will their fantastic start to the 2013-14 campaign fade into oblivion? We here at Soccersouls decided to present our readers with an in depth tactical analysis of Liverpool’s approach to their first game in the new year and what would their strongest eleven look like.

Goalkeeping:

Liverpool go into the game with a plethora of injuries and Rodgers might be sweating over the look of his overall squad depth. Simon Mingolet who hasn’t quite looked assured in the last few games will start in goal in an attempt to find a clean sheet, a subtle theory to achieve a win in the circumstances.

Defence:

Sakho and John Flannagan are expected to be out thanks to injuries and Glen Johnson who was withdrawn in the second half against Chelsea has also picked up a couple of niggles. This means Liverpool will start with Marin Kelly, and Aly Cissokho in the full back slots unless Johnson makes it to the starting line-up today while Martin Skrtel and Daniel Agger will feature in central defence. Kolo Toure might also feature and so might Brad Smith if Rodgers opts for a more robust 3-5-2 instead of the 4-2-3-1.

Midfield:

Steven Gerrard is back in training but the Liverpool captain will likely sit out of this one while Joe Allen will also be on the sidelines. This enabled Lucas and Henderson to play in the middle of the park alongside Coutinho in a more central position behind the main striker. Raheem Sterling will be definitely starting on the right while Iago Aspas (even though he wears the number 9) or Victor Moses might play in the left wing. Luis Alberto might be deployed too if needed.

Strike Force:

If the last two games against City and Chelsea gave any indication, Hull might realize that if Suarez is isolated Liverpool crumble. The away side will be looking to make life difficult for the Uruguayan but the type of player Suarez is, it will be very difficult to stop him in his tracks when on full flow and on song. Suarez too would personally want to get back to the scores sheet faster than usual which certainly augurs well for the Reds.

Here is a full report given by Rodgers on his injured stars quoted by the Independent.

“Steven has rejoined training so we’ll see how he is for Hull.”

Rodgers said: “Joe will probably be a few weeks and with Sakho we are just awaiting confirmation.

“Glen Johnson came off but that was tactical, not injury-enforced, and there are one or two other niggles that we have to assess.

“Jordan Henderson (who took a knock against Chelsea) is fine. He was obviously on his first day of recovery today and is still sore, but he is a real soldier and should be fit.”