Liverpool predicted lineup vs Aston Villa - Premier League
Liverpool travel to the second city to face Aston Villa in the Premier League on Monday evening.
Boxing Day will serve as an opportunity for Jurgen Klopp to renew rivalries with Unai Emery. Klopp described the former Villarreal manager as "detail-obsessed" and "world class" ahead of Liverpool's Champions League semi-final with Emery's previous employers last season.
Here's the XI Klopp may deploy against a respected foe in a bid to achieve the same success as that European tie.
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Liverpool predicted lineup vs Aston Villa (4-3-3)
GK: Alisson - Injured for the infamous 7-2 defeat at Villa Park in 2020, Alisson has won all five of his career meetings with Villa.
RB: Trent Alexander-Arnold - England may have reached the quarter-finals but Alexander-Arnold was hardly overworked, playing just 34 minutes - the lowest tally of any squad member that actually got onto the pitch.
CB: Joel Matip - Cameroon's loss has been Liverpool's gain as Klopp can call upon a well-rested Matip who retired from international football in 2015, aged just 24.
CB: Virgil van Dijk - In the year and a half leading up to the World Cup, no footballer played more minutes across all competitions than Van Dijk. The Dutchman didn't miss a second as the Netherlands bowed out of the quarter-finals but was given a rest for the cup clash in midweek.
LB: Andy Robertson - The scarcely injured fullback doesn't just look after his muscles and joints. “But the head is the worst part of the body because it can let you wonder," he once warned.
CM: Harvey Elliott - The thrill of a new pair of football boots was so great Elliott used to wear them to bed.
CM: Fabinho - A man of many nicknames was given the sobriquet "Dyson" by James Milner. It hasn't stuck among the playing group but apparently, Klopp was taken by the hoover comparison for a time.
CM: Thiago Alcantara - A decade ago, Barcelona sanctioned Thiago's departure because Sergi Samper was deemed to be the better prospect. Samper only made 13 senior appearances for the Blaugrana and is recovering from a cruciate ligament injury in Vissel Kobe's treatment room.
RW: Mohamed Salah - After Salah suffered a shoulder injury ahead of the 2018 World Cup, the president of Egypt - rather than the head of the football association - gave the first update on Salah's well-being. There was no need for any fitness bulletins from the Heliopolis Palace this winter as Salah and his compatriots watched the World Cup from afar.
ST: Darwin Nunez - Before he turned 18, Nunez had already suffered two serious knee injuries. He fended off thoughts of quitting and his arrival commanded up to €100m in the summer.
LW: Fabio Carvalho - While Liverpool still reel from the "proper smash in the face" of Luis Diaz's injury, Carvalho could take it as an opportunity to sneak a few more first-team starts.