Just a small match preview until we get the new-look match threads sorted.
Does feel like form goes out the window only some of the time in derbies, but Liverpool’s lack of ability to rotate may be an issue after two games in four days, and this one on Saturday lunchtime.
I’d perhaps suggest Darwin Núñez wait another game while Bobby Firmino is in such good form, but equally, the Brazilian, now 31, looked leggy later on last night, and Núñez’s pace and physicality will be perfectly suited to taking on the two slow oaks at the heart of the Everton defence.
The worry with Núñez is provocation, but he must have been used to big games, and doesn’t have a history of red cards. He just won’t get much protection from English refs, as a foreign striker.
As such, it feels like the winning team needs freshening up, but Jordan Henderson is out until the international break; handily, others are returning, and he hasn’t played well this season. Maybe this is the kind of game he’d be suited to, but James Milner might make sense in the midfield for the non-nonsense quota.
Fabio Carvalho also must be pushing for a place alongside his mate Harvey Elliott, but it’s hard to play two kids in such a testing arena, even if individually either would be fine.
As bad as Everton have been, never write them off in this fixture, especially when they are in the mood for a fight.
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