Liverpool welcome Leeds United to Anfield in a rearranged clash at opposite ends of 2021-22 Premier League table.
Victory would see Liverpool reduce their deficit to Manchester City to just three points in the title race, whereas Leeds can go 14th with a win.
Team News
Liverpool will be without Roberto Firmino after a muscle injury forced him to miss Saturday’s comeback win against Norwich.
Diogo Jota remains absent after suffering an ankle injury against Inter Milan last week.
Leeds could be without Robin Koch after he suffered a head injury in Sunday’s 4-2 loss against Manchester United.
Liam Cooper, Kalvin Phillips (both hamstring), Patrick Bamford (foot), Leo Fuhr and Sam Greenwood (both knee) are absent.
Stat Attack
- Liverpool are unbeaten in their last nine league meetings against Leeds (W6, D3).
- Leeds have won just one of their last five league visits to Anfield (W1, D1, L3).
- Given that this match was originally set to be played on Boxing Day, Liverpool won their only previous Boxing Day clash against Leeds by a 3-1 result in 1997 at Anfield.
- Across the top four teams entering this matchweek, no player has won more aerial battles than Liverpool’s Virgil Van Dijk who won 55 of his aerial battles.
- No Leeds player this season has played more through balls than Raphinha, who has created six through balls in 16 league appearances.
Prediction
Jurgen Klopp will definitely be eager to see how his Reds react here after struggling to break down Norwich on Saturday with scrappy attacking, until substitutions made the difference as defence struggled to close gaps down at times in a solid if off colour effort.
Leeds meanwhile were aggressive against Man Utd but just simply failed to take their chances clinically except for two goals, whilst defence proved their downfall with poor marking and sloppy errors which ultimately was key to their defeat.
I though am struggling to see Liverpool not winning this game especially if they’re to put pressure on Man City in the title race, yet they must improve their attacking performance but Leeds won’t make this easy if they aggressively get on the front foot.
Prediction: Liverpool 2-1 Leeds
Result: Liverpool 6-0 Leeds