Liverpool are going to have to turn in a performance for the ages in order to progress past Atalanta tonight.
The Reds have left themselves with a mountain to climb in the Europa League after losing last week’s home leg 3-0.
That result kicked off a dismal week for Liverpool. Beaten back-to-back at Anfield for the first time in a long, long time, Jurgen Klopp needs to see a reaction from his team in Bergamo.
Thankfully, there are some positives to take going into the game. Alisson Becker has declared his readiness for the match having returned to the starting line-up on Sunday.
And with Liverpool needing at least three goals at the Gewiss Stadium, Danny Murphy thinks Klopp is about to make some changes to his forward line, too.
Danny Murphy backs Diogo Jota selection
There’s little question that Liverpool are capable of scoring three without reply against Atalanta this evening. Although the Italians trounced them at Anfield, they do sit in sixth place in Serie A. Having given up a two-goal lead late on to Hellas Verona on Monday, Atalanta are far from infallible.
On the flip side of that, Liverpool have a forward line who can be devastating. They’ve been creating chances without scoring in the past two games, but eventually the hope is that that will start to click again.
If it does, it feels likely to come at least in part down to Diogo Jota. The 27-year-old has been hailed as the best finisher in the first-team squad. If you need a goal or three, you want Jota on the pitch.
And speaking to TalkSPORT, Murphy has claimed that he expects the Portuguese to start along with Luis Diaz and Mohamed Salah.
“The thing is with Liverpool although they’re not scoring, their forwards have been misfiring, we’ve seen the numbers printed everywhere about the amount of chances and shots compared to the goals they’ve scored. But there’s absolutely no doubt that Liverpool will get chances because they go hell for leather, they go after teams. They don’t play cautious football,” says the pundit.
“Depending who he picks, I imagine Jota will play, probably Salah and Diaz, they’re going to have chances to score goals.”
Who else will play for Liverpool vs Atalanta
If we know Alisson is playing, and assuming this is the front three, it still leaves question marks over who else will play for Liverpool.
It shouldn’t be forgotten that the Reds have a busy schedule in the Premier League over the next 10 days or so. They have four away games between now and April 27th.
As a result, we may see some rotation, with the likes of Ryan Gravenberch and Dominik Szoboszlai perhaps coming back in to start.
We think Klopp has no choice but to go strong this evening and £45m man Jota should be part of that. But there may be one or two surprises from Jurgen in there, too.