Liverpool’s poor run of form that began with a late defeat to Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park, will sought to be finished at Anfield against the Eagles on Wednesday night.
Liverpool have lost twice to Palace this season, having suffered defeat to them at Wembley in the Community Shield.
The Eagles are owed one, here is who Arne Slot might opt for.
Goalkeeper: Freddie Woodman
Hear me out. Alisson Becker as we all know is injured, and Giorgi Mamardashvili has played a lot of football in his stead.
Mamardashvili played in Liverpool’s Carabao Cup third round victory over Southampton. Last season, when Alisson was injured around the same period Viteslav Jaros featured in the League Cup.
This means that Freddie Woodman could be in line for a competitive Liverpool debut, as Slot aims to give him gametime in case of injury to Mamardashvili.
Left-back: Andrew Robertson
Robertson and Milos Kerkez have tended to alternate left-back duties this season, with Robertson playing in the week.
Despite scoring, Kerkez struggled again at the weekend, and Robertson is thus even likelier to feature.
He will be keen to show once again that he is the best man for the job.
Centre-back: Virgil van Dijk
Liverpool’s left-sided centre-back is almost never in doubt as van Dijk gets the nod amid a shortage of Liverpool centre-backs.
Giovanni Leoni featured against Southampton, but after his season-ending injury, van Dijk is almost certain to play.
Van Dijk will be keen to put in better performances and quiet the noise around the club and any spurious questions about his leadership.
Centre-back: Joe Gomez
Joe Gomez is almost a forgotten man these days, and Arne Slot has made it clear that Konate is first-choice despite his poor form.
Gomez can stake his claim with a better display, than his poor showing against Southampton.
There is also an argument to play Gomez at right-back and play Konate at centre-back, but too much gametime for Konate will put him at further risk of injury.
Right-back: Conor Bradley
After Jeremie Frimpong’s injury, Liverpool are left with one fit out-and-out right-back at the club.
Bradley is injury prone and thus will likely not feature for the whole ninety minutes on Wednesday.
There has been an absence of deputies with Wataru Endo seemingly unsuitable for the role and Gomez struggling on Saturday. Dominik Szoboszlai is the obvious choice, but he has been playing a lot of good football recently.
Defensive midfielder: Wataru Endo
Liverpool’s Japanese midfield maestro, Wataru Endo, will likely come in for this match and carry some of the burden in midfield.
Endo has been in some ways deprived of his niche role of seeing out games of football, as Liverpool haven’t been able to get themselves into the position of being able to see them out.
He would be, defensively at least, a natural deputy for Ryan Gravenberch, but Slot clearly doesn’t seem to think he has that place in the pecking order.
Defensive midfielder: Alexis Mac Allister
Alexis Mac Allister has been notably absent amid Liverpool’s recent woes.
Mac Allister did not have a good start to the season and was rightly taken out of the firing line by Slot, in favour of Curtis Jones.
The Argentine will still need minutes for his sharpness and should thus dip his toe back in with this one.
Central midfielder: Trey Nyoni
Given Florian Wirtz’s tiredness at the end of Liverpool’s defeat to Brentford, he will likely be on the bench for this game against Crystal Palace.
This opens up a spot for someone to play in the advanced midfielder position.
With the poor performances of so many in the Liverpool team, Slot may be more willing to give a game to a youngster and Nyoni is best placed for that.
Left-winger: Rio Ngumoha
With Cody Gakpo having played so many games this season, Ngumoha will likely play against Palace.
Slot has rightly been careful with the youngster this season, but he needs gametime at some point, and minutes need to be taken off a keenly utilised Gakpo.
Ngumoha featured in Liverpool’s third round win over Southampton.
Right-winger: Federico Chiesa
Like Endo, Slot has been reluctant to give starts to Federico Chiesa despite injuries and poor performances.
Chiesa tends to relish the domestic cups and he should feature against Palace.
A good performance and a couple of goals could propel Chiesa into the team, given the poor performances of Mo Salah.
Striker: Hugo Ekitike/Mo Salah
Hugo Ekitike will likely play given the injury to Alexander Isak.
Bar a wildcard of someone at striker that no one expects, the other option could be Mo Salah.
Slot may choose to manage Salah’s minutes and he could come on for Ekitike on 60 minutes to avoid injury to the Frenchman.