Arne Slot makes three changes as 'struggling' player returns to start: Liverpool's predicted XI vs Aston Villa
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Liverpool play their third game on the spin at Anfield on Saturday as they aim to consolidate their place atop the Premier League table.
Aston Villa are the opponents on Merseyside as the Reds play a rare Saturday evening 8pm match.
Riding a bit of a wave and coming up against a Villa side who have lost three matches in a row, Liverpool will be favourites at Anfield.
With an international break coming straight after the final whistle, Arne Slot will know the importance of collecting three more points and keeping the momentum going.
Villa are no mugs, though, and despite their current form will be another test for Liverpool.
As the Reds look to take another big leap towards a potential title challenge, here’s the XI we expect the Liverpool head coach to pick.
Defence
Liverpool’s goalkeeping choices are plentiful at the moment, but Caoimhin Kelleher is quite clearly the main man. He’ll go again in Alisson Becker’s continued absence.
In front of Kelleher we see no reason for Slot to go as strong as he possibly can.
That will mean Trent Alexander-Arnold going again at right-back while Ibrahima Konate and Virgil van Dijk continue their brilliant partnership together.
Slot has overseen a battle for the left-back spot at Liverpool so far this season, though, and we think that after picking Kostas Tsimikas for the last two games, Andy Robertson will get the nod for this one.
Robertson has been ‘struggling’ over recent matches but he should be fresh and ready to make an impact against Villa.
READ MORE: Chris Sutton predicts the score for Liverpool’s Saturday night Premier League clash vs Aston Villa
Midfield
During the early part of his tenure at Anfield, Slot very much liked to keep the same midfield three.
However, Curtis Jones is in brilliant form and this has meant that the Dutchman is now picking three from four very good candidates.
Despite Jones playing a blinder against Bayer Leverkusen, though, we’re back Slot to revert to type against Villa and thus go with Alexis Mac Allister, Ryan Gravenberch and Dominik Szoboszlai.
Attack
Given that two of Liverpool’s six attacking options are still injured, attack is not a hard part of the pitch to predict.
Luis Diaz played in a new position and banged in a hat-trick against Leverkusen but we’d expect him to return to the left-wing here.
That’s because having been left on the bench in midweek, Darwin Nunez should be ready to go through the middle.
Mohamed Salah will complete the Liverpool forward line, with Cody Gakpo raring to do some damage from the subs bench.
