Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp admits team lacks confidence
It’s an all-British affair in the Champions League tonight as Liverpool host Rangers in Group A. The Reds bounced back from their opening matchday defeat to Napoli with a 2-1 victory against Ajax - thanks to Joel Matip’s 89th minute winner - and sit second in the group ahead of this evening’s clash.
Rangers, meanwhile, have lost both of their first two fixtures in Europe’s top competition conceding seven goals across ties with Napoli and Ajax. It’s been a bruising return to the Champions League for the Scottish side, but they’ll take some confidence into this fixture thanks to a 4-0 mauling of Hearts in the Scottish Premiership at the weekend.
It’s also a good time to visit Anfield with Jurgen Klopp’s team looking defensively weak and struggling to find any sort of rhythm. Out of the five games they’ve played at home this season Liverpool have kept just one clean sheet, but they’ll be hoping to rectify that against the Gers and get their campaign back on track. Can Rangers capitalise on Liverpool’s frailties, or will the Reds sweep Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s men aside tonight?
Follow all the action from the Champions League as Liverpool host Rangers at Anfield:
Davies returns to Anfield
Ex-Liverpool man and now Rangers defender, Ben Davies, never broke into the first team after signing for the Premier League side but will play against his old club at Anfield tonight.
Hespoke to BT Sport before kick off saying: “The performance against Napoli in the last game was better than against Ajax.
“Tonight is another opportunity to show what we can do at this level.”
Virgil van Dijk: Consistency key to Liverpool recovery after fresh setback against Brighton
Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk is confident his side can find their best form fast, and insists that consistency is the key.
But it will take actions rather than words to turn around a trend that has seen Liverpool keep just two clean sheets in 10 matches, with the latest chaotic defensive display clinically exposed by a Seagulls side who had not played for a month and were playing their first match for a new manager.
The Reds are 11 points behind Premier League leaders Arsenal after drawing their fourth game this term
Lacking the clinical finish
Rangers are still looking for their first Champions League goal this season, having never previously failed to score in their opening three games.
Only Viktoria Plzen (two) and Sevilla (three) have had fewer shots on target than Rangers (four).
Can Liverpool emulate Ajax?
Rangers' 0-4 defeat against Ajax on matchday one was their heaviest in a Champions League away game. They had one shot on target - eight fewer than their opponents, and only four touches in the opposition box.
Lundstram’s torn allegiences
Rangers midfielder John Lundstram was born in Liverpool and began his career with Everton in 2002, signing as a scholar in 2010.
After moving to Ibrox last year, he admitted that he will have family and friends supporting opposite sides this evening.
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Trent Alexander-Arnold the fall guy but Liverpool’s defensive woes start elsewhere
It wasn’t a replay as much as a tape that seemed stuck on the same loop, the video nasty that appeared to confirm Gareth Southgate’s opinion that Kieran Trippier has a better all-round game than Trent Alexander-Arnold. At half-time inside Anfield, the television screens that can be viewed internally showed Brighton’s first two goals time and time and time again. And then again.
There was Alexander-Arnold, with a poor header out to allow Brighton to regain the ball; it is a weakness in his game, when a diagonal ball finds him at the far post. There he was, beaten too easily by Leandro Trossard before he opened the scoring; he is not a one-on-one defender of the calibre of Kyle Walker. There he was, attempting an audacious bit of chest control, only for Danny Welbeck to head the ball away from him in the build-up to Trossard’s second. Jurgen Klopp had mounted the case for the defence of Alexander-Arnold in eloquent, impassioned fashion on Saturday. The prosecution could show the footage and not worry about the words.
The strongest adjectives Klopp deployed after the 3-3 draw with Brighton were “horrendous” and “horrible.” Neither was applied to Alexander-Arnold, though the Liverpool manager said his side could have defended all three goals better. Defending, Klopp argues, is a collective endeavour. The back four are the obvious culprits when goals go in. “From the outside, that’s fine,” said Virgil van Dijk, who has admitted his own performances have dipped below his usual standards. “It’s more complex than that. Defending starts from the front.”
The England right-back was exposed in the 3-3 draw with Brighton but Jurgen Klopp was more frustrated by his midfield
Rangers record in Champions League
Rangers have now made 11 appearances in the Champions League group stage and are featuring for the first time since 2010/11 when, as in eight of their nine other campaigns, they were unable to reach the knockout rounds.
The exception came in 2005/06 when they got to the round of 16, beating Porto 3-2 along the way.
Eintracht Frankfurt vs Tottenham
Elsewhere in the Champions League tonight, Tottenham Hotspur travel to Germany to take on Europa League winners, Eintracht Frankfurt.
Here’s a look at the two confirmed line-ups:
Frankfurt XI: Trapp, Tuta, Hasebe, Ndicka, Knauff, Rode, Sow, Jakic, Lindstrom, Kamada, Muani
Tottenham XI: Lloris, Romero, Dier, Lenglet, Royal, Hojbjerg, Bentancur, Perisic, Richarlison, Kane, Son
Liverpool vs Rangers team changes
Jurgen Klopp makes three changes to the Liverpool side that drew with Brighton on Saturday. Roberto Firmino, Fabinho and Fabio Carvalho drop out with Diogo Jota, Darwin Nunez and Luis Diaz brought into the side.
Rangers make four changes to the side that beat Hearts at the weekend in the Scottish Premiership.
Antonio Čolak drops to the bench Alfredo with Morelos preferred to start in attack. 18-year-old defender Leon King and midfielders Steven Davis and Malik Tillman also come into the line-up.