Slot makes five changes and leaves 'excellent' player disappointed again: Liverpool's predicted XI vs Ipswich

01/24/2025 02:00 PM

Liverpool have an excellent chance to put further pressure on their Premier League rivals as they face Ipswich Town on Saturday.

The Reds are overwhelming favourites to pick up three more precious points against Kieran McKenna’s relegation candidates, with Arsenal kicking off away to Wolves at the same time.

Another positive result for Liverpool coupled with an Arsenal wobble and the Reds will really start to believe that this could be their year.

Arne Slot and his players warmed up well as a rotated team beat Lille 2-1 at Anfield on Tuesday. With the Premier League back, though, the Liverpool head coach looks set to make a number of changes again. Here’s the line-up we think Slot will go with.

Defence

Alisson Becker has not been at his best ever since returning from injury in December. But, unless anything unforeseen happens in the meantime, he’ll keep his place for this one.

There will likely be three changes in the defence, however, with Slot set to restore his first choice back four.

That will mean Trent Alexander-Arnold coming back in place of Conor Bradley at right-back and the much-maligned Andy Robertson to return on the left.

Virgil van Dijk will likely be the only outfield defender to keep his place from the Lille game, with Ibrahima Konate due to replace Jarell Quansah. Konate has been passed fit to play and hopefully he’s refreshed after a week’s break.

Midfield

Liverpool picked up an injury in midfield on Tuesday, as Curtis Jones was forced off at half-time.

We don’t think the injury will have much bearing on Saturday’s line-up, though, with Slot likely to pick his three most used players: Alexis Mac Allister, Ryan Gravenberch and Dominik Szoboszlai.

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Harvey Elliott made a good case for his inclusion after coming off the bench to make a difference – and get the winning goal – during the victory over Lille. Elliott has been ‘excellent‘ when given the chance of late and there are calls for the youngster to get more starts.

Slot spoke on giving Elliott more game time in the build up to the Ipswich game, but we think the 21-year-old is set to be disappointed once again here.

Attack

Liverpool’s attack is a little trickier to predict now that Federico Chiesa is getting more up to speed. Chiesa was good off the bench last week at Brentford and again on Tuesday. But we don’t think Slot will see him as being ready to start just yet.

Instead, Mohamed Salah will go again after becoming the first player to hit 50 European goals in Liverpool history on Tuesday.

Having amazingly failed to feature against Lille, Cody Gakpo also feels certain to start from the Liverpool left.

The only question left remaining for the head coach then is who he trusts through the middle. Paul Merson has urged Slot to drop Darwin Nunez for this one and despite the Uruguayan’s good form, we think that’s the way it will go.

Luis Diaz is likely to reprise his central role instead, and fans will be hoping for better than what the Colombian has served up recently.