5-A–SIDE This week’s winners & losers
LADBROKES 5-A-Side allows you to be the boss. Pick your formation. Select your players. Choose your stats. Build your team. Place your bet. Here is our line-up for tomorrow’s clash between Liverpool and Everton. Selected matches only. Prices subject to fluctuation. Find out more at www.ladbrokes.com/5-a-side
1. KEEPER – TO CONCEDE
Given the Everton goalkeeper’s role in derailing Liverpool’s season, the hosts would take great glee in some payback
JORDAN PICKFORD TO CONCEDE 3+ GOALS 2. CRUNCHER – TO BE CARDED
With Fabinho set to be absent, Spain midfielder Thiago will be all the more determined to protect his defence
THIAGO ALCANTARA TO BE CARDED 3. BALLER – PASSES
If Everton are to be competitive at Anfield they need to make sure their star man sees plenty of the ball
JAMES RODRIGUEZ TO MAKE 40+ PASSES 4. SNIPER – SHOTS
With Dominic Calvert-Lewin out injured expect the Icelandic midfielder to look to add to Everton’s firepower
GYLFI SIGURDSSON TO HAVE 1+ SHOTS 5. FINISHER – GOALS
Liverpool may have lost their Mo-jo but their main man has still got his, with seven goals in his last six games
MO SALAH TO SCORE 2+ GOALS TEAM ODDS: 33/1
HARVEY BARNES
The Leicester winger tormented Trent Alexander-Arnold before sealing a 3-1 win over Liverpool, nobody looks able to stop the 22-year-old’s direct style.
HUGO LLORIS
Jose Mourinho called him ‘the best goalkeeper in the Premier League’ in December but how many soft goals is the Tottenham No.1 going to concede?
ROMELU LUKAKU
Up to 300 career goals at aged 27 with the brace that took Inter Milan top of Serie A with a 3-1 win over Lazio. Is there a better No.9 in the world?
CHRIS WILDER
As if being 14 points from safety wasn’t bad enough, the Sheffield United boss has seen the ill John Fleck rushed to hospital and John Egan badly injured.
IT may be more than four months since the two sides drew 2-2 at Goodison Park but the repercussions are still being felt – we’ve certainly heard all about it from the red half of Merseyside.
Considering the champions had already shipped seven goals at Aston Villa it is an overstatement to suggest Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford’s rash challenge that ended Virgil van Dijk’s season wrecked Liverpool’s title defence.
But there is no doubt it was a watershed moment on a day when Jurgen Klopp’s side also felt they were failed by VAR, both for the decision not to punish Pickford with a penalty or a card, and for Jordan Henderson’s disallowed goal.
Ten central-defensive pairings later, Liverpool have slumped to sixth in the table following three league defeats in a row, making this the biggest test of Klopp’s Anfield reign.
They answered some of the criticism rather well with their 2-0 Champions League victory over RB Leipzig and, while Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane hogged the headlines for the goals, equally important was the brilliant save Alisson made shortly before the second-half breakthrough.
It was a welcome return to form for a goalkeeper so uncharacteristically off colour in the defeats to Manchester City and Leicester but he may well be happy to share some of the limelight with the man at the other end of the pitch tomorrow.
The criticism aimed at Pickford was fierce and his place in the Everton team under scrutiny but despite pressure from Robin Olsen, he retains the faith of boss Carlo Ancelotti who recalled him after three games out with a rib injury for Wednesday’s 3-1 home defeat to Manchester City.
No blame could be attached to Pickford, indeed he had a good game, but Everton – who led the table after their early-season draw with Liverpool – have become rather too inconsistent of late.
‘It was really, really difficult,’ said Ancelotti of the challenge City posed. A ground Everton last won on in 1999, a trip to Anfield would usually be similarly difficult, but Liverpool have lost their last three home games.