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This is going to be a long, terrifying, exciting, awful, fantastic month. Liverpool are in first place, with a healthy squad (except, sadly, Jose Enrique), and have both momentum and excitement at their back. It's awesome and horrifying all at the same time.
What's been fun to watch develop over the last month or so has been the hybrid 4-3-3/4-4-2 narrow diamond tactic that Brendan Rodgers has been employing. The positional dynamism of Philippe Coutinho and, somewhat surprisingly, Raheem Sterling have played a huge role in how well it's been working so far, and let's hope that trend continues.
While the focus will duly be placed on the home matches against Manchester City and Chelsea, the road tilt against West Ham this weekend has the potential to be a bit of a stumbling block as well. Even Norwich might not be as much of a gimme as they normally are if Liverpool get too focused on the Chelsea match and overlook them. Liverpool have the fate of the title race firmly in their grasp, but they have to win out to keep it that way as things stand. The pressure has never been higher.
| Key: Starter (Bold), U21/Academy (Italics), Injured (Orange), Suspended (Blue), On Loan (L) | |||||
| Goalkeeper | Fullback/Wingback | Centerback | Central Mid | Attacking Mid | Forward |
| Simon Mignolet | Glen Johnson | Martin Skrtel | Steven Gerrard | Philippe Coutinho | Luis Suarez |
| Brad Jones | Jose Enrique | Daniel Agger | Jordan Henderson | Luis Suarez | Daniel Sturridge |
| Daniel Ward | John Flanagan | Mamadou Sakho | Lucas Leiva | Raheem Sterling | Iago Aspas |
| Yusuf Mersin | Aly Cissokho | Kolo Toure | Joe Allen | Victor Moses | Victor Moses |
| Pepe Reina (L) | Brad Smith | Lloyd Jones | Luis Alberto | Jordan Henderson | Jerome Sinclair |
| Mamadou Sakho | Rafa Paez | Jordan Rossiter | Iago Aspas | Samed Yesil | |
| Martin Kelly | Stephen Sama | Joao Teixeira | Joao Teixeira | Fabio Borini (L) | |
| Ryan McLaughlin | Jakub Sokolik | Jack Dunn | Luis Alberto | Michael Ngoo (L) | |
| Marc Pelosi | Andre Wisdom (L) | Jordan Lussey | Jerome Sinclair | ||
| Joe Maguire | Tiago Ilori (L) | Cameron Branagan | Kristoffer Peterson | ||
| Jack Robinson (L) | Sebastian Coates (L) | Yalany Baio | Cameron Branagan | ||
| Sheyi Ojo | Jordon Ibe (L) | ||||
| Marc Pelosi | Suso (L) | ||||
| Conor Coady (L) | Oussama Assaidi (L) | ||||
| Kristzian Adorjan (L) | |||||