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Little time to rest after a disappointing performance, which has unfortunately become a pattern for Liverpool over the last month or so. Liverpool were better at the weekend but still couldn't get the result against Hull City, and they'll head into tomorrow's League Cup tie in a familiar spot--a win now seems the only acceptable outcome if they're going to avoid further club in crisis talk, whereas if Liverpool were half-decent at doing things this would just be a nice run-out for the squad. But hopefully it will still be a nice run-out for the squad.
Swansea started the season brightly but stuttered a bit before this weekend's 2-0 win over Leicester City; they're level on points with Liverpool, but were winless in the Premier League in September. Their lone victory in all competitions came in the League Cup, a resounding 3-0 win over Everton in the Third Round. In the Second Round they defeated Rotherham United 1-0 in a tough away fixture.
Manager Garry Monk will likely be without a number of regular first-teamers tomorrow, as Gylfi Sigurdsson came off due to injury and will joing Dwight Tiendalli, Leon Britton, Jordi Amat, Ashley Richards, and Rory Donnelly on the sidelines. Back in September Monk went with a mixture of fringe players and starters in the eleven; Gerhard Tremmel got the start in goal in place of regular number one Lukasz Fabianski, with a full-strength back line of Neil Taylor, Ashley Willams, and Federico Fernandez (with Williams involved at that time), a midfield of Sigurdsson, Jonjo Shelvey, Jefferson Montero, and Tom Carroll, with Nathan Dyer and Bafetimbi Gomes leading the attack. Wilfried Bony, who scored both goals against Leicester, didn't feature in the last round, though Wayne Routledge and Ki Seung-Yung made appearances off the bench.
For Liverpool:
Jones
Johnson Toure Lovren Enrique
Lucas
Henderson Coutinho
Markovic
Borini Lambert
Still just the handful of names on the injury list--Daniel Sturridge, Suso, Mamadou Sakho, and Jon Flanagan remain out, but all other should be fit and ready to feature. Jordan Henderson was reportedly carrying a slight knock ahead of the Hull match, which kept him out of the starting eleven, but it doesn't appear to be enough to rule him out again tomorrow.
It should be all change throughout the squad; at minimum, Steven Gerrard and Raheem Sterling need to be on the bench or out of the squad, and there's enough depth everywhere outside of central defense. We might not get that, but the options are available, and with the calendar packed from now until the November international break, now's the time for Brendan Rodgers to change things up.
Glen Johnson, Jose Enrique, and Kolo Toure will likely come into defense ahead of Brad Jones in goal, and Lucas will hopefully return to central midfield after an extended spell out of the squad. After substitute appearances on the weekend both Henderson and Philippe Coutinho are okay to start (and hopefully come off after an hour), while Lazar Markovic, Fabio Borini, and Rickie Lambert should be included.
Kickoff is set for 8:00PM BST/4:00PM EST, with beIN Sports/beIN Sports Connect airing the match in the US. Our coverage will start with the overnight open thread tonight and carry into the matchday post early tomorrow, which will have team sheets an hour before kickoff. Hope you'll be around to join us--if you haven't already, sign up for an SBNation profile and stick around.
