Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
Liverpool return from their Europa League exploits in Midweek to play host to Stoke this Afternoon. Both sides will still harbour desires of reaching that competition next season but defeat for either side will probably spell the end of that dream for that season.
Liverpool may have a couple of backup plans in that they still have a couple of games in hand on the teams above them and could also bypass the Europa League completely by winning this season’s tournament and getting a backdoor Champions League entry for next season.
Jurgen Klopp put his inside knowledge to good use on Thursday as a well marshaled Liverpool came away with a draw and more importantly a crucial away goal in their tie against Borussia Dortmund, it sets the 2nd leg up on Thursday very nicely.
The only blot on the copybook from Thursday night would have been the news that Jordan Henderson is ruled out for the rest of the season due to injury. Roy Hodgson will now be sweating on the fitness of the Liverpool Captain as he looks to name his 23 man squad for EURO 2016.
Last time out in the league they held title chasing Tottenham to a 1-1 draw with Philippe Coutinho turning in a man of the match performance. He was the engine room last Saturday and all that Liverpool created came through the dimunitive Brazilian. Jurgen Klopp will no doubt be hoping for more of the same this Afternoon.
They go up against a Stoke side who are probably still asking themselves how they threw away a 2-0 lead against Swansea last Saturday. A win there would have put them in touching distance of the Top 6 but as it stands they find themselves in 8th place with some work to do if they are going to close the gap to the group of teams above.
Losing Jack Butland through injury would have no doubt been a hammer blow but it was more a lapse in the defence which allowed Swansea to score twice last Saturday, even with Butland in Goal they would have still conspired to throw away the win.
The question now will be whether Klopp decides to rest key players for Thursday and go all out for Europa League glory and subsequent Champions League qualification. I think the smart money would suggest that he may. Whether Stoke can capitlise on this though remains to be seen. I’ll go for a draw
