Liverpool has recently mostly maintained a stable starting lineup. Jürgen Klopp has the opportunity to change things up by bringing Diogo Jota and Cody Gakpo back for the Atalanta game.
Liverpool’s team has very few injuries right now, but their dreams of winning the Premier League and the Europa League are in danger of collapsing.
It may seem paradoxical, but this season’s poorest run of form has coincided with the return of multiple stars after months of depending on rookies and lesser lights to produce results.
Jürgen Klopp’s top priority is to come up with a strategy to reverse the 3-0 setback against Atalanta. His Liverpool team has a history of surpassing this score, even though the 4-0 victory over Barcelona in 2019 took place at Anfield rather than on the road.
Even if Lionel Messi and company are not as good as they are, this challenge is still larger.
The formation of Klopp’s front three might be his first choice, given that all five of his senior attackers are available.
With the exception of the first leg against Atalanta, Mohamed Salah, Darwin Núñez, and Luis Diaz have led Liverpool’s attack in each of its last five games.
Giving Cody Gakpo and Diogo Jota two of the places in Italy, though, would make sense.
Even if he was unable to score in the last two games, the Portuguese forward’s return inspired the team and the fans. Jota was still able to have two Opta-defined great opportunities despite playing just 38 minutes (including stoppage time) in the losses to Atalanta and Crystal Palace.
He still has the predatory movement and placement skills, even though his finishing still has to warm up.
Gakpo gave Jota a fantastic opportunity when he returned to play, marking the first time the two have collaborated to create a chance that is characterized as one.
where a player should be able to score, frequently from very close range or in a one-on-one situation. Despite his lackluster play, the former PSV Eindhoven player has generated three of the five significant chances he has created this season in the last two games. Just when the Reds need him most, he might be finding his form.
Gakpo and Jota have only started in the front three together ten times previously, however there have been times when the former has been in midfield and the latter has been attacking.
There have been seven occasions when Mohamed Salah has lined up with Liverpool’s numbers 18 and 20, thus it is safe to assume he will start on Thursday.
The only occasion when none of them scored was during the previous season at Crystal Palace. The high point came this week, a 6-1 triumph at Elland Road, 12 months ago, when Salah scored twice and received assists from Gakpo and Jota. The Netherlands international broke the tie while the latter scored twice as well. Although Marcelo Bielsa’s man-to-man style was not as evident as it could have been, the stylistic similarities between Leeds and Atalanta could influence Klopp’s decisions this week.
Later, with four strikers on the field against Everton, they gained the lead. It was a little unexpected that the Liverpool manager did not take a chance and play four of his senior forwards against Palace on Sunday, even though it seemed improbable.
He gave it a go at Molineux for eleven minutes in September of last year, during which the Reds overcame a 1-0 deficit.
the field and, in similar situations against Luton and Manchester City, equalized.
The best example is perhaps the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final vs Fulham, where Gakpo and Núñez came off the bench to play with Diaz and Jota, and the substitutes combined to score the winning goal.
Liverpool must first score a few goals against Atalanta in order for this scenario to occur. Gakpo and Jota’s shape with the unavoidable starter Salah believes Klopp should start these three players in this crucial game.
