Liverpool FC Forum

Referee for match confirmed as Anthony Taylor

Liverpool will have Raheem Sterling available for Saturday’s trip to Arsenal – but face an anxious wait to discover the extent of Daniel Sturridge’s hip injury.

Sterling returned to Merseyside following England’s Euro 2016 qualifier against Lithuania on Friday, having been given permission to miss tomorrow’s friendly with Italy in Turin.

The 20-year-old has been troubled by a toe problem in recent weeks, but will train as normal at Melwood this week, and is expected to start at the Emirates, as his side look to revive their hopes of a top-four finish.

Sturridge suffered a hip injury in the defeat to Manchester United eight days ago, which prevented him from linking up with Roy Hodgson’s England squad.

Liverpool have not officially ruled him out of the Arsenal game at this stage, though they are likely to err on the side of caution, given the fact Sturridge has already lost five months to muscle injuries this season.

For Rodgers, losing his main striker for any length of time would be a significant blow. Sturridge has scored four times in 13 games since returning to action in January, and Rodgers remains unconvinced about the merits of any of the club’s other specialist strikers.

Returning Sterling to the forward line is an option, and one that has brought success this season, though with Steven Gerrard and Jordon Ibe both sidelined, and Adam Lallana forced to miss England duty with a groin problem, Rodgers is light on attacking midfield options too.

Lucas Leiva, Dejan Lovren and Lazar Markovic should all be available for the weekend, though Martin Skrtel’s suspension will necessitate changes in defence.

Liverpool know a defeat at Arsenal would all but end their hopes of securing Champions League football next season.

And with an FA Cup quarter-final replay at Blackburn Rovers immediately following Saturday’s game, Rodgers will be waiting anxiously to see if the rest of his international players, including vice-captain Jordan Henderson, come through this week’s round of matches unscathed.

This is do or die time / win or bust for our Premier League season, lose this one and if the scum beat a poor Villa team at home we will be 8 points behind the scum with a mere 8 matches left to play, lose and no way back for us in my opinion

If as expected Sturridge is ruled out through injury i would go with a starting 11 like this....


                                                Mignolet

                      Can                     Lovren                  Sakho

                 Ibe / Markovic      Henderson     Lucas     Moreno

                                     Coutinho     Lallana

                                             Sterling

If Raheem is playing, I hope he turns up. This whole mess regarding his contract is an unecessary distraction for the whole team. I reckon he'll be based at The Emirates next season (the wee shyster), so I hope that he isn't distracted in this match by playing against his (near) future employers.
I'm sorry to say I have a bad feeling about this one, all the tv hype and build-up is making me feel really uneasy, but I'm trying to remain optimistic. I really hope Sanchez doesn't bang a few in against us, since he was supposed to be a Redman, the cnut. Great player, but a cnut, just the same.
If we play the way we can play, we have the beatings of anyone, but when we slump to the way we have performed at times, we could be beaten by almost anyone. I'm not a sportsman, in truth I'm about as far from it as you could get, so maybe there's more to it than I know, but I really don't understand the whole inconsistency problem with our players. Anyway, fingers crossed......
Keep the faith, brothers.

We will lose for sure ,then again i hope i'm just as right with my prediction as against Manure....

Proper bricking it regarding this. End of the season and the inevitable slide between 5th and 8th commences. If we turn up we can do em and I still have faith, but I am far from 80's liverpool  confident

I couldn't face the Ure game so I'm not even going to get out of bed for this one. I can't take it any more, I really can't.

only me » Wed Apr 01, 2015 2:02 pm wrote:We will lose for sure ,then again i hope i'm just as right with my prediction as against Manure....

You're right, the ridiculous positivism last time was a f*cking jinx. I think we'll lose for sure as well 

Anyway, no need to say that it's a must win since every match from now is a must win if we want top 4. Even if we do win everything (highly unlikely), United will still need to lose at least 2 games out their remaining 8. That's not impossible though, since they have some difficult fixtures left so we need to keep our spirits up, win everything we can and hope for the best.

I don't know how I'd play in this since I'm not even sure who's fit and who isn't but I'd definitely play Lucas instead of Allen.

I hope the team that played against city turns up because lets face it we haven't been playing well at all recently, we have been grounding out results lately and got found out in the last match. We need to get our form back and quickly.

The training photos suggest that Sturridge will be ok to play on Saturday against Arsenal

Brilliant press conference from Rodgers. Very positive. ‘Sterling going nowhere this summer’. Great news that Sturridge is fit for Arsenal.

He says Lallana may well be too.

Brendan Rodgers says the 3-game ban for Martin Skrtel was "unjust" and fact that appeal was dismissed was "bitterly disappointing"

Brendan Rodgers is hopeful Liverpool will have Daniel Sturridge and Adam Lallana available for Saturday's lunchtime trip to Arsenal.

The England duo remained at Melwood during the international break due to hip and groin injuries respectively.

However, Rodgers is optimistic they will both be ready for this weekend's Barclays Premier League clash at the Emirates and also confirmed Lucas Leiva could be considered from the start after returning to full fitness.

The manager told reporters at Melwood: "Daniel is back training with the team today. We'll see the reaction of that tomorrow.

"It's a game we will want to get something from. In terms of the objectives going into the game, it's no different to what it was before Manchester United, but of course we had a disappointing result and performance last time out.

"We really want to make sure we perform and give ourselves a chance to get a positive result.

"The team is coming along fine. The squad have been away, some of them coming back from internationals, and they're fine.

"Jordan Henderson is back in and Lucas Leiva is back fit and available to come in from the start. The squad is good.

"Adam will hopefully be training with the team tomorrow and available for the weekend."

It's promising news that Sturridge is in contention to play. I wouldn't risk starting him though. I'd play Sterling up front and pack the midfield as well. Arsenal have so much of the ball at their place so we have to try and starve them of possession - somehow.

As far as the quote, 'This is a must win game' goes, as far as I'm concerned, and always have been, Liverpool must try and win any game they play. 

Let's hope the true Liverpool turn-up, whatever side BR picks. It's about time we did Arsenal and I don't particularly care how it's achieved.

We just need to play well from now until the end of the season. It's vital that we do this so that we can go into next season in a positive frame.

Beating these on their own patch is going to take a bit of doing but it's certainly not impossible.
Having Lucas back will definitely help, Hendo and Allen are athletic and get about the park but I just think in certain situations (i.e when a game is starting to get away from us) they lack a bit of game intelligence.
One or two of the forward players will need to seriously up their games too, the likes of Lallana and Sterling have given the ball away far too cheaply in recent weeks and if that happens against Arsenal it could take us five minutes to get it back.

Just remembered that skrtel is out so that means lovren returns. Hopefully his head is in the right place and he is up for it.
This is going to be a tough one to get a result and we don't stand a chance if we don't turn up . Its a pressure game that we need to win so I expect to see us try and do that.

Come on the pool 

red till i die!! » Sat Apr 04, 2015 10:08 am wrote:Just remembered that skrtel is out so that means lovren returns. Hopefully his head is in the right place and he is up for it.

I thought the same but Kolo talking as if he is playing, will be interesting to see starting 11