{"id":6356,"date":"2026-05-09T08:19:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T08:19:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=6356"},"modified":"2026-05-09T08:19:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T08:19:21","slug":"predicted-liverpool-xi-vs-chelsea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=6356","title":{"rendered":"Predicted Liverpool XI vs Chelsea"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"mvp-content-main\" itemprop=\"articleBody\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thisisanfield.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/P2025-08-15-Liverpool_Bournemouth-26.jpg\" alt=\"Milos Kerkez encouraged to &quot;play smarter&quot; and &quot;harness the aggression&quot;\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Liverpool were beaten by Manchester United at Old Trafford last weekend but remain in a strong position to qualify for the Champions League next season with their fate in their own hands as three games remain in the Premier League.<\/p>\n<p>Arne Slot\u2019s men take on Chelsea at Anfield at 12:30 local time on matchday 36 of the English top division hoping to pick up all three points in front of their fans in the penultimate home game of the campaign against a struggling Chelsea team.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ihhfs69fecd7d8e127\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-225247\" src=\"https:\/\/football-talk.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/FootballTalk_New_Chapter-rememore.png\" alt=\"Rememore new hair\" width=\"400\" height=\"333\"\/><\/div>\n<p>Here is how the hosts are expected to line up for the clash.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Goalkeeper<\/strong> \u2013 Freddie Woodman is expected to continue in between the sticks for Liverpool.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Defenders<\/strong> \u2013 Curtis Jones played at right back in the previous game and could continue as a full back this time around as well. Andy Robertson, on the other hand, could drop out of the side to make way for Milos Kerkez. Ibrahima Konate and Virgil van Dijk, meanwhile, are expected to continue in an unchanged pairing in central defence.<\/p>\n<h2>Frimpong higher up the pitch, Gakpo as the number nine<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Midfielders<\/strong> \u2013 Alexis Mac Allister and Ryan Gravenberch are expected to get the nod in the double pivot in Liverpool\u2019s engine room once more, while Dominik Szoboszlai, the standout performer from the Manchester United game, is expected to be handed an advanced role as the team\u2019s number 10.<\/p>\n<p>Jeremie Frimpong might be employed on the right flank given his defensive shortcomings as Mohamed Salah is still injured, whereas Florian Wirtz could play on the left wing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Forward<\/strong> \u2013 Cody Gakpo could play as the number nine with Liverpool unlikely to risk Alexander Isak\u2019s fitness.<\/p>\n<p>Here is how the Reds are expected to look on paper.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fotmob.com\/api\/data\/lineup-builder\/team?players=582276:Freddie%20Woodman,933768:Curtis%20Jones,820140:Ibrahima%20Konat%C3%A9,209405:Virgil%20van%20Dijk,357880:Andrew%20Robertson,831489:Alexis%20Mac%20Allister,956683:Ryan%20Gravenberch,966018:Jeremie%20Frimpong,846005:Dominik%20Szoboszlai,1152455:Florian%20Wirtz,806552:Cody%20Gakpo&amp;formation=4-2-3-1&amp;teamId=8650&amp;showTeamBadges=false&amp;showCountryBadges=false&amp;lang=en&amp;currency=EUR&amp;measurementSystem=metric\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<!--mvp-post-tags--><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<!--posts-nav-link--><\/p>\n<div class=\"mvp-org-wrap\" itemprop=\"publisher\" itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/Organization\">\n<div class=\"mvp-org-logo\" itemprop=\"logo\" itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/ImageObject\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"250\" height=\"50\" src=\"https:\/\/football-talk.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/new-logo.png\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<meta itemprop=\"url\" content=\"https:\/\/football-talk.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/new-logo.png\"\/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><!--mvp-org-logo--><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<meta itemprop=\"name\" content=\"Football Talk | Premier League News\"\/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><!--mvp-org-wrap-->\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Liverpool were beaten by Manchester United at Old Trafford last weekend but remain in a&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6357,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}