KopTalk.com Forums Football Liverpool FC Forum Well Spurs it is then

The side pretty much picks itself with Naby out:

Alisson
TAA
Matip
VVD
Robertson

Hendo
Fabinho
Wij

Salah
Firmino
Mane

Origi, Milner, Shaqiri (and hopefully Ox) on the bench to come on if needed. Only questionable one is if Milner should start ahead of Hendo or Wijnaldum

Surely Keita wouldn't start anyway?

It's tough on anyone left out, especially as Henderson and Wiji underwhelm at times. Henderson's leadership and passion the last few months has really stood out for me though and proved many of us/me wrong.

Fabinho is a monster of a player and allows Hendo and Wiji to get forward more, so I'd go with the line up above. Fabs is exactly what we needed.

That's 8 of the team that started the final last year. You have added Alisson, Fabinho and Matip instead of Karius, Lovren and Milner. I don't think your line up will be far out. Gomez may start ahead of Matip. But we are so much stronger than last season and the bench reflects that also.

Last year the bench was
Mignolet, Clyne, Moreno, Can, Lallana, Klaven, Solanke.

This year it would probably be
Mignolet, Gomez, Lovren, Milner, Moreno, Shaqiri, Sturridge, Origi, Brewster, Lallana, Ox, Woodburn.

Not sure if it is 10 or 12 subs but a 4th sub is allowed in extra time apparently.
If we are looking for a good luck charm the official ambassador for the final is Luis Garcia!

Has Firmino recovered? Also, don't think Milner will start, unless Hendo is injured, Milner hasn't been playing 2 games in a week recently

This is for CL final Tired. So what has this to do with Milner playing 2 games in a week?

Playing a premiership team is unfortunate. It takes something away form the event. You don't get the same feeling of a European final against a team that you never played before or play very rarely. e.g. Borrusia Moenchengladbach, Bruges, Real Madrid, Roma, Juventus, AC Milan. Ajax would fit nicely onto that list... but Spurs...

Also, had it been Ajax the teams wouldn't really know each and we'd all be intrigued to see how it panned out. With Spurs, both teams know each other, each can beat the other on any day really and our over-ridng feeling may simply be one of anxiety based on the ghastly thought of losing to them!

Peronally, i think they have a good chance as they'll start as underdogs but they've shown in league games that they can batter us if we're not on top of our game. Even the home game this season, they should really have beaten us if I remember correctly. Didn't they miss a couple of easy chances to kill the game before we 'nicked' it?

Of course, if we win none of the above will matter at all It's just that the lead up to the final would have been more fun if were playing Ajax i think.

True Mighty but the away game until the last 4 mins was the most complete performance I have seen. We could have been 5 up at half time. I remember the reporters saying we could have won 7 of 8 nil and Spurs would not have had any complaints.

But this will be a one off. We are the form team. I expect us to win.

well... I'll have to read the match report shortly, but that touches on another aspect that concrens me. Their forwards seem more clinical with their finishing. They have whay some might call 'normal' strikres in Kane, Moura and Llorente. Our forward three are great but none of them are efficent finishers. I see that being an advantage for them.

I don't think 'form' will be releavnt as the game is over three weeks away.

I'm worried about our preparation, no doubt we will be off to a warm weather training camp in Spain or somewhere like Dubai, the last few times we have done this, like around FA Cup games, we have come back and struggled in the first few games we need to be firing on the night, not struggling getting upto speed.

I don't think the PL games this season will have any bearing on this game, so it's pointless analyzing them. The match at Anfield was after the International break and we all know that we've played some of our worst games coming off International breaks.
We have gotten much stronger as the season has wore on, our energy levels v Barcelona were unbelievable. I just can't see how Spurs beats us in our current form and tactics.