With just two hours to go until new Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp takes to the touchline for the first time outside his native Bundesliga, it’s fair to say that our resident Reds fans are a little bit excited.
While on paper it looks no easy feat facing Tottenham away in the German’s first game in charge, the Reds have actually beaten Spurs on the last five occasions they’ve met while scoring at least three goals in those same number of fixtures.
Not bad going huh?
So with this good record against Tottenham to keep up, Reds supporters know that a win will will take the club to 15 points and if the likes of Arsenal, Manchester United West Ham United and Leicester slip up, Liverpool could be a lot closer to where they want to be come 8pm on Saturday evening.
In truth, the Reds’ league position is far from being totally disastrous with the Premeir League wide open this year and everybody knows Klopp is focused on a rebuilding process where he will presumably be bringing in a few of his own faces in January.
One man who has been intensely linked with a Reds switch is Borussia Dortmund’s Ilkay Gundogan who managed to displace Manchester United’s Bastian Schweinsteiger for Germany’s most recent European Qualifier against Germany.
Undoubtedly a talented footballer, Klopp has already distanced himself from claims he’ll be making a double swoop for both Gundogan and Marco Reus but with managers sometimes bluffing as we know, we’ve devised a Liverpool eleven with the former player metaphorically included.
Our landlord has been reading the quotes from Kop Legend John Barnes in the Mirror, with Barnes saying: “Is Liverpool’s potential good enough to win the league? I don’t think so. We still need better players and I think one of the reasons he has been brought in is because of his knowledge of good, young German players. That’s what it is going to take.”
Our landlord has to agree with Barnes on this occasion, with him admitting that a move for someone like Ilkay Gundogan would be a major, major move for the Merseyside outfit – which could ultimately help them win the Premier League title.
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Click on the image below to reveal the best XI Liverpool can field under Klopp including Gundogan.
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Simon Mignolet
When Liverpool fans look at other goalkeepers playing for the Premier League’s top clubs such as Petr Cech, David De Gea and Thibaut Courtois, deep down they know Simon Mignolet is not at this level.
Looked upon as a player who can be improved upon in the transfer market, Mignolet hasn’t been as erratic this term as he was at the start of the 2014/15 campaign.
Having seemingly lost all of his composure between the sticks, in fairness to the former Sunderland man, he managed to stem the tide in the second half of last season.
Nathaniel Clyne
Starting for England in the European Qualifier against Estonia recently, Nathaniel Clyne will have firm reason to believe that he can be Roy Hodgson’s first choice right back for the Three Lions in France at Euro 2016 next year.
A solid performer ever since his days at Crystal Palace and then Southampton prior to his big Liverpool transfer, Clyne usually gives 7 out of 10 displays at right back most weekends.
Signed for £12.5 million too, we think this is relatively small change for a quality player such as Clyne in what is undoubtedly an over-inflated transfer market nowadays.
Emre Can
A player who’ll want to be improving his own performances and pronto is Emre Can who is seemingly still learning on the job.
Looking a top quality find last season, some of Can’s deficiencies were found out to the latter end of last season and at the start of this.
The sheer matter of fact is that Can was originally deployed as a midfielder by Brendan Rodgers who then opted to move him back into defence and after originally impressing, a few mistakes have crept in.
That said, with Jurgen Klopp now on board, perhaps the German connection will help foster some better performances out of the prospect.
Martin Skrtel
Still not totally faultless, ask most Liverpool supporters and they’ll definitely tell you that Martin Skrtel is their best centre back.
It was to Brendan Rodgers’ plight that Liverpool’s defensive unit as a whole wasn’t nearly as efficient as they needed to be in yielding consistent results.
In Skrtel’s fellow defensive team-mates of Mamadou Sakho, Kolo Toure and Dejan Lovren, this trio have all proved that they have an error or two in their game on more of a regular basis.
Mamadou Sakho
To start with this season, Brendan Rodgers opted to choose Dejan Lovren as Martin Skrtel’s first choice central defensive partner but as we saw in the home game against West Ham United, he simply can’t seem to shake costly errors from his game.
Therefore, many Liverpool fans have been grateful when Mamadou Sakho has stepped in but in truth, the French international isn’t the most reliable of centre backs on a week-to-week basis either.
There is an onus on Sakho to improve his game-to-game consistency because at the end of the day, he’ll be vying with the likes of Raphael Varane, Eliaquim Mangala and Laurent Koscielny for a place in Didier Deschamps’ France squad for Euro 2016 next summer.
Alberto Moreno
In terrible news for Liverpool yesterday evening, Joe Gomez has been ruled out for the rest of the season having ruptured a cruciate knee ligament away on England Under-21 international duty.
It is an incredible shame for the Charlton Athletic academy graduate because under Rodgers, he was receiving some invaluable experience, starting games at left back for the Reds against an entire plethora of opposition.
Gomez’s rapid rise to stardom has been to the detriment of last summer’s signing Alberto Moreno who has had to settle for a place on the bench but the Spanish international will need to step up now.
One of Rodgers’ better signings of last summer, Moreno is capable but equally inconsistent and that said, he’s still more reliable than the injury-prone Jose Enrique.
Jordan Henderson
Missing through injury at the moment, you could surmise that Liverpool have been missing the midfield dynamism of captain Jordan Henderson.
Enduring a slow start to life at Anfield, the former Sunderland man has steadily improved and it would be ignorant to ignore the fact that he was an incredibly reliable member of Liverpool’s team last season.
Very similar to new signing James Milner in that the England international pair can seemingly run all day, Henderson will be looking to shake off his injury troubles for good while putting in a solid rest of the season to prove to Roy Hodgson that he’s worth the Euro 2016 shout over the likes of Jonjo Shelvey and Dele Alli come the end of the season.
Ilkay Gundogan
Alongside Neven Subotic, Ilkay Gundogan has been the other Borussia Dortmund player who has most intensely been linked with a winter transfer to Liverpool in following Klopp to Anfield.
Make no mistake; the German giants won’t want to be giving up on one of their star talents who they’ve already fought to hard to keep but with Klopp now installed, perhaps the player might secretly have designs on linking up with his former manager again.
Gundogan fits that category of being a player in that level above the signings Liverpool have actually made in the past two summer transfer windows.
While the likes of Lazar Markovic, Mario Balotelli, Roberto Firmino and Christian Benteke have been bought in for big money, they were all good players on paper compared to Gundogan being truly considered one of the top holding midfielders in the game right now.
For everybody connected with Liverpool, they’ll hope that they can strike a deal in three months’ time.
Philippe Coutinho
With Philippe Coutinho in contention for the Tottenham game on Saturday lunchtime, this is a fantastic boost for Jurgen Klopp who’ll know that the Brazilian is probably Liverpool’s most talented individual right now.
Stepping up his creative flair in Luis Suarez’s absence, Coutinho has been a superb find for the Reds and it’s just a shame for Brendan Rodgers that he didn’t nearly manage as many success stories in the transfer market which came back to bite him in the behind.
With Klopp set to bring his own tactics to the table, we don’t know where exactly he’ll end up deploying Coutinho going forward but given the former Inter Milan man’s versatility across the attacking midfield line, he’ll be fitting in somewhere.
Daniel Sturridge
Returning to the Liverpool fold with a bang against Aston Villa with a brace prior to the Merseyside Derby ahead of the international break, Daniel Sturridge was given time off away from the England set-up to fully recuperate after his injury troubles.
When fit and firing, Sturridge has already proved time and again that he can be a right handful for opposition defenders and with Danny Ings, Christian Benteke and Divock Origi also to choose from, Jurgen Klopp is inheriting a side with plenty of striking options at the moment.
Christian Benteke
Perhaps not enjoying a scintillating start to his Liverpool career, Christian Benteke has in part proved that he can be a good Liverpool striker going forward.
With his stunning overhead goal away at Manchester United proving the highlight of his fledgling Reds career to date, Liverpool fans will be hoping for much more from their £32.5 million big Belgian arrival for the rest of the campaign.
Benteke has already proved in England that he’ll get goals but he’ll have to continue chipping in with Danny Ings also proving lately why he earned his big move to Anfield.
At this stage, there’s no doubting that Benteke is making a better fist of his new life at Anfield than fellow big money signing Roberto Firmino who really needs to get his skates on in regards to proving to the Kop why Fenway Sports Group invested so much money into his talents.
