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Liverpool-Borussia Dortmund combined XI

By Tom Bogert

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - AUGUST 10: Borussia Dortmund's Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in action against Liverpool's Jordan Henderson during the pre season friendly match between Liverpool FC and Borussia Dortmund at Anfield on August 10, 2014 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Alexandre Simoes/Borussia Dortmund/Getty Images)
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - AUGUST 10: Borussia Dortmund's Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in action against Liverpool's Jordan Henderson during the pre season friendly match between Liverpool FC and Borussia Dortmund at Anfield on August 10, 2014 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Alexandre Simoes/Borussia Dortmund/Getty Images) /
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HAMBURG, GERMANY – MARCH 07: Head coach Juergen Klopp (L-R) and Marco Reus of Dortmund appears frustrated after the First Bundesliga match between Hamburger SV and Borussia Dortmund at Imtech Arena on March 7, 2015 in Hamburg, Germany. (Photo by Oliver Hardt/Bongarts/Getty Images)
HAMBURG, GERMANY – MARCH 07: Head coach Juergen Klopp (L-R) and Marco Reus of Dortmund appears frustrated after the First Bundesliga match between Hamburger SV and Borussia Dortmund at Imtech Arena on March 7, 2015 in Hamburg, Germany. (Photo by Oliver Hardt/Bongarts/Getty Images) /

How many Liverpool players could come within a shout of cracking this Dortmund team?

There’s so much to be excited for with this Liverpool-Borussia Dortmund Europa League match up. We get to watch all the players that Jurgen Klopp is going to poach from his old team, up close and personal!

Just kidding. It’s more than likely that Klopp snipes no players away from Dortmund, which is fine, because what Dortmund is right now is a creation of Klopp, so Liverpool fans can look to this team with hope that this is something we’ll be watching on a regular basis one day in the future.

Liverpool are Dortmund lite right now. Daniel Sturridge isn’t quite Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, and Philippe Coutinho and Roberto Firmino aren’t quite Marco Reus and Henrikh Mkhitaryan. And that’s okay, because there aren’t many trios in the world that rival Dortmund’s.

Anything that Liverpool accomplish this season is just a bonus after the abysmal start that Brendan Rodgers began with and all the injuries that accrued after a few months of Klopp’s full throttle football.

This is a matchup of two proud clubs with brilliant fans. There’s no hate and it should* be a tremendous spectacle.

*Unless Dortmund smash Liverpool 5-0 in leg one, then there will be hate and not a tremendous spectacle if you’re watching through red tinted glasses.

So how many Liverpool players get in the team? Not many, but also not zero. With all the attacking talent on tap, there were legitimate thoughts to go three in the back but that wouldn’t be realistic as neither team deploy those tactics.

So I settled on an attacking 4-3-3 formation, with two defensive mids and an attacking mid.

Next: GK

GK- Roman Burki

This could’ve been anyone to get ahead of Simon Mignolet. It was always going to be the Dortmund keeper, both Dortmund keepers would get in ahead of Mignolet.

Burki hops in ahead of Mignolet because he’s a competent, functioning human being. Burki has kept 10 clean sheets behind the high flying Borussia Dortmund who are known for their attacking prowess rather than their defensive stability, similar to Liverpool but just, like, a lot better.

Next: RB

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