Liverpool vs Everton is not just the duel between Klopp and Ancelotti, which is already not to be missed. It is a crossing that will mark the aspirations of the first ones in the Premier League and the real options of the second one to return to the European competitions, the main objective of the whole season.
For this reason and because the derbies are not played, but are won, the duel this Saturday (12:30) falls into the category of “not to be missed” at every corner.
Liverpool can’t afford another luxury: they have already failed against Manchester City, against Leicester and against Manchester United. It would seem that he has taken a step aside in the fight for the Premier title and that now the priority, who would have thought, is not to leave the current disgraceful sixth place to fight for one of the four places in the Champions League.
The cross remains the injured victims of Fabinho, James Milner Diogo Jota, Joel Matip, Joe Gomez and Virgil van Dijk, with whom improvisations will remain an obligation and not a choice for Klopp.
Fortune, at that moment, smiles at Carlo Ancelotti, who will lose, yes, Gbamin and Yerry Mina, the latter for a period of three to four weeks, but will not recover anything less than Dominic Calvert-Lewin and total midfielder, Brazilian Allan. Knowing that the balance is back is necessarily an illusion for “toffee”, which comes from the defeats against Fulham (0.2) and Manchester City (1-3) and must now win to climb from the seventh box of the table in Europe classification.
There is also a good feeling with James Rodríguez, who is “well, happy and motivated”, according to Ancelotti, and will have the obligation to pull the strings to hurt an Everton that, perhaps for the only time, does not reach as unattainable.
Probable formations
Liverpool: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Kabak, Henderson, Robertson; Thiago, Wijnaldum, Jones; Wrong, Firmino, Mane
Everton: Pickford; Coleman, Holgate, Keane, Digne; Doucoure, Allan; Rodriguez, Sigurdsson, Richarlison; Calvert-Lewin
Time: 12:30 Colombian time