Giorgi Mamardashvili will return to the Liverpool starting lineup when they host Brighton & Hove Albion at Anfield in the FA Cup fourth round on Saturday.
Liverpool will aim to secure a spot in the FA Cup fifth round when they welcome Brighton & Hove Albion to Anfield on Saturday night. Arne Slot has received a mixed bag of updates on the team news front ahead of his side’s latest fixture.
Dominik Szoboszlai is available after serving a suspension in the Premier League game against Sunderland earlier this week. However, Wataru Endo is the latest absentee after sustaining a foot injury in the same match.
So, Jeremie Frimpong (hamstring), Giovanni Leoni (knee), Conor Bradley (knee), and Alexander Isak (fracture) are the only players unavailable, as they remain in the treatment room. Meanwhile, during his pre-match press conference, Slot provided a fitness update on Endo.
The Liverpool head coach said, “A foot injury. We still need to do some assessments but it’s clear and obvious that he will be out for quite a long time. Is this a moment for the others? But which others and in which position? So, I need another 24 hours to decide on the lineup.”
Slot also discussed how his players will cope with the challenge of playing three times within a week. The Liverpool boss said, “Not the first time this season that we have to play three games in seven days and I’ve said many times, it’s part of being a top club, a big club, that you play a lot of games. But three in eight is already better and some teams have three in nine.”
“And then it also depends of course, in the FA Cup, what draw you have and we play a very strong Brighton team because I think there are a lot of comparisons between Brighton and us. They absolutely don’t deserve to be in a position they are in at the moment, they play so much better than the league table shows. Almost every game they are competitive and deserve more than they get.”
“So yeah, it’s another challenge…yesterday evening it took me a long, long time before I could fall into sleep because I was constantly considering what options I have for the lineup and what I should do, because indeed do you play the same players again or the others?”
Giorgi Mamardashvili will replace Alisson Becker between the sticks, with Liverpool lining up in a 4-2-3-1 formation in front of him against Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday. The backline will feature Joe Gomez, Ibrahima Konate, Virgil van Dijk, and Andrew Robertson.
As for the midfield unit, Dominik Szoboszlai will line up alongside Curtis Jones in the double pivot, with Florian Wirtz reprising the no. 10 role. Finally, Hugo Ekitike will lead the line for the home side against Brighton, with Mohamed Salah and Rio Ngumoha being the two wide attackers. So, Federico Chiesa, Cody Gakpo, and Alexis Mac Allister will be among the backup options on the bench.
Predicted Liverpool XI: Mamardashvili; Gomez, Konate, van Dijk, Robertson; Szoboszlai, Jones; Salah, Wirtz, Ngumoha; Ekitike