8 months ago
166 Liverpool will look to make progress in yet another competition this season as they head to Manchester United in Sunday’s FA Cup quarter-final.
Jurgen Klopp‘s Reds have already won the Carabao Cup this season. They’re also in the Europa League quarter-finals and firmly in the Premier League title race.
The Red Devils, one of Liverpool’s biggest rivals over the decades, now await Klopp’s high-flying charges at Old Trafford on Sunday afternoon.
In terms of team news for Liverpool, they’ll likely be without defender Ibrahima Konate, who’s still nursing a knock he picked up in the trip to Sparta Prague.
The Reds are also without a number of long-term absentees, like Trent Alexander-Arnold, Alisson Becker, Stefan Bajcetic, Ben Doak, Curtis Jones, Diogo Jota, Joel Matip and Thiago Alcantara.
With that in mind, which Liverpool players could make up Klopp’s starting XI for the Manchester United clash? The Boot Room takes a look.
Jurgen Klopp to go with strong Liverpool XI v Manchester United
Considering the importance of the fixture, the quality of the opposition, the fact Liverpool are playing away and the international break coming right after, we predict Klopp will a strong XI.
Caoimhin Kelleher is all-but certain to go in goal as Alisson continues to recover a hamstring injury which could keep him out until mid-April.
In defence, we predict that Virgil van Dijk and Jarell Quansah will make up Liverpool’s centre-back pairing, with Joe Gomez and Conor Bradley at full-back.
Klopp withdrew Quansah and Gomez during Thursday’s match, while Robertson played the full 90 minutes, including at centre-back.
This suggests Klopp had Sunday’s match in mind, and as such, we reckon Quansah and Gomez will both start against Manchester United, while the 30-year-old drops out.
Then we come to the midfield. This pretty much picks itself at present – we predict a trio of Dominik Szoboszlai, Wataru Endo and Alexis Mac Allister.
And in attack, we predict a front three of Mohamed Salah, Darwin Nunez and Luis Diaz.
Although Gakpo is also a good shout, he played the full 90 minutes on Thursday, so the “1000 miles an hour” talent – in Harvey Elliott’s words – will be a lot fresher.
Liverpool predicted starting XI v Manchester United (4-3-3): Kelleher; Bradley, Quansah, Van Dijk, Gomez; Mac Allister, Endo, Szoboszlai; Salah, Nunez, Diaz
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