Town will need luck to break Reds fortress

the first leg of their Champions League semi-final on Wednesday.

However, with Liverpool still firmly in the title race – even though they must hope for a Manchester City slip over the final three games of the season – it’s very unlikely we’ll see Klopp field a team full of kids and outcasts.

Clearly that’s bad news for Town. Tonight’s game will pit the league’s worst attack against the best defence, and the second-worst defence against the second-best attack.

However, they are not entirely impervious to harm – 10 of the 20 league goals they have conceded this season have been against teams currently in the bottom half of the Premier League. Here’s how they managed it and what Town can learn from it ahead of tonight’s game... VIRGIL Van Dijk has been imperious alongside various different centre-back partners this season, with Joe Gomez, Dejan Lovren and current choice Joel Matip all proving difficult to break down.

But however good they are, there are still only two of them, and even the Premier League strugglers have found success by getting extra players into the box.

Max Meyer’s late goal for Crystal Palace in January came from Connor Wickham laying off an Andros Townsend cross.

Johan Berg Gudmundsson’s strike at Anfield last month was the result of Matej Vydra first heading down a cross, then receiving the ball again and slipping in the Icelander. Southampton took an early lead three weeks ago when PierreEmile Hojbjerg headed on Ryan Bertrand’s cross from deep for Shane Long to finish.

You may be noticing a trend: All those goals involved a midfielder getting into the box to either receive or provide a flick on.

Only two sides – Tottenham and Newcastle – have made more successful crosses than Town this season. Their best chance of getting a goal or two at Anfield may be to get extra runners from deep to charge in and look for those knock-downs and layoffs – Aaron Mooy and Juninho Bacuna seem likely candi

dates.

Town’s best chance of getting a goal at Anfield

may be to get extra runners to charge into

the box

BURNLEY and Crystal Palace have been able to score conventional set piece goals against Liverpool, but taking a little bit more initiative and trying the unexpected may be a more successful approach.

Michael Antonio earned West Ham a draw back in February by running around the outside of the