Liverpool Predicted XI vs Villa: £20m starts, ‘perfect’ player dropped

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Liverpool were knocked out of the EFL Cup by Arsenal in midweek on penalties.

Jurgen Klopp’s side likely have bigger fish to fry this season but they will still be looking to recover from that setback at Villa Park on Sunday.

Aston Villa, like the Reds, have won every league game this season – so a 100 per cent record will have to give here.

Much of Klopp’s first eleven is set in stone, and there’s only one real selection headache ahead of this one.

Alisson should play in goal and Joe Gomez’s return from injury on Monday night gives Klopp his first choice back four back.

Virgil van Dijk, Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold should all be shoo-ins, but it’s in midfield where the fun starts.

Klopp used his pre-match press conference to offer an update on £20 million captain (BBC) Jordan Henderson’s fitness.

“Hendo will be part of parts of the training today. He has absolutely no muscle issues. It is all fine, he is not injured anymore, so now we have to make sure he can make the next step.

“What that means for the weekend, I don’t know. He is now working on his physical things for a few days already, but now more football specific, which is important with us.”

That means we’ve got Henderson in our team for the Villa match, with Gini Wijnaldum dropping out.

Klopp is a huge fan of the Dutchman – calling him ‘perfect’ in October 2019 – but the form of Fabinho and Naby Keita means he’s likeliest to drop out.

Mo Salah was a surprise midweek starter against Arsenal but that shouldn’t impact his place in the starting team here.

Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino got Thursday night off but both should come back in here.