Liverpool vs Fulham – Lineups, injury news, stats, preview

Kolo Toure, Simon Mignolet and Jordan Henderson

Liverpool host Fulham this Saturday looking to forget their blushes against Arsenal from last weekend. The Reds lost pace on Arsenal at the top of the Premier League and are currently in 3rd place, and 5 points behind them. The defeat was only Liverpool’s second of the season, but it will come as a wake up call for Rodgers, who will want his team to secure all three points against a relatively comfortable opponent.

While Arsenal managed to keep the SAS strike force at bay last time around, Fulham’s game will come as oppurtunity to get back in the scoring sheets. Albeit, there were a few eye brows raised with Rodgers’ tactics against Arsenal as he kept changing his formations constantly with no positive output to show for his efforts.

Fulham on the other hand are becoming such an unpredictable team this season. Martin Jol’s men are at the wrong end of the table (17th) with just 10 points from 10 games. Fulham started with a five-game winless streak at the start of the season, which was then followed by three victories in four, then three defeats on the trot. Last time around, United almost ran riot over them in the first half scoring 3 goals in just 22 minutes, but an improved second half performance saw the cottagers score a consolation goal.

Team News:

Liverpool:

One major concern for Liverpool was the hip injury sustained by captain Steven Gerrard against Arsenal, but he has been deemed fit to play in Saturday’s match against Fulham, according to James Pearce of the Liverpool Echo.

Elsewhere Glen Johnson whose late withdrawal against Arsenal was huge blow last week but Rodgers has confirmed that the English full back will return to the first team.

“Glen Johnson will be fit,” Brendan Rodgers told a pre-match press conference at Melwood. He’s fine. He’s trained this week – it was just one of those peculiar things that happened.

“Maybe if it had been a day earlier, he may have been able to play. But he’s fine for the game and has looked good in training this week.”

Liverpool will almost have a full squad except for the long term absentees Iago Aspas and Sebastian Coates. Coutinho who came in as a second half substitute last week, should start tomorrow adding a much needed creative force in the middle of the park.

Fulham:

Hugo Rodallega will be a big blow for the Cottagers. Sky Sports reports that, he has been ruled out of action for between five and six weeks, while Sascha Riether will start to serve his three match ban for an incident with Manchester United’s Adnan Januzaj.

Possible starting lineups

Liverpool: Mignolet; Johnson, Cissokho, Toure, Skrtel, Sakho; Lucas, Gerrard, Henderson; Sturridge, Suarez

Fulham: Stekelenburg; Hughes, Senderos, Amorebieta, Richardson; Dejagah, Sidwell, Parker, Kasami; Ruiz; Berbatov

Stats:

• Daniel Sturridge is Liverpool’s top scorer in the league this season with 8 goals
• Darren Bent, Steve Sidwell and Pajtim Kasani are Fulham’s top scorers in the league this season with 2 goals each
• Liverpool had 46% possession in their last match, a 2-0 loss away to Arsenal
• Fulham had 47% possession in their last match, a 3-1 loss at home to Manchester United

Prediction: 3-0.