| Sunday, April 18th |
Premier League | Hill Dickinson Stadium
2:00PM BST/9:00AM EST
When Liverpool head over to their neighbors for the away leg of the Merseyside derby, the only thing left to fight for in this season for Liverpool is a place in the top four. With six games remaining, the Reds are three points behind both third place Manchester United and fourth place Aston Villa. While they did fall out of the Champions League in midweek against PSG, they did put in a good performance last weekend in the league. We are hoping for a repeat of that type of Fulham energy at the new Hill Dickinson Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
Everton, once again in the tender embrace of David Moyes, are doing well for themselves this season. They are in eighth place, but that’s only eight points off of fourth place themselves.
We have less than 10 games left to enjoy watching Mohamed Salah in a red shirt. He loves an Everton match, and after scoring last weekend, hopefully tomorrow he’ll be in the mood to add to his tally. The other goal scorer against Fulham was the youngster Rio Ngumoha, who broke Raheem Sterling’s record to become the youngest Liverpool player to score a league goal for the team. In a way, it felt like celebrating the old and welcoming in the new for Arne Slot’s team. A Merseyside derby is certainly one of the best tests for a player like Ngumoha, with tons of potential but lacks experience, to see if he has the mentality it takes to play for Liverpool.
They’ll need someone to step up now that top scorer Hugo Ekitike is out for at least the rest of the season.
Predicted Liverpool Lineup (4-2-3-1)
Mamardashvili; Szoboszlai, Van Dijk, Konate, Kerkez; Gravenberch, Jones; Salah, Wirtz, Ngumoha; Isak
Isak is back in now that Ekitike is out of commission. Alisson Becker, Wataru Endo, Conor Bradley, and Giovanni Leoni are also still on the absent list. Cody Gakpo may start, but more likely he’ll come in for Isak, who Slot admits is not yet ready for a full 90 minutes after recovering from a fractured leg.
Moyes, on the other hand, is only down Jack Grealish and has the rest of his squad healthy and available to play.
The Managers Have Their Say
Arne Slot: “Always a very special game; it doesn’t matter if it’s the first or the 60th. But if it’s the last and then the first one at a stadium that makes it even more special if possible.”
David Moyes: “It was amazing the last game at Goodison and it was a privilege that I was in that position to take the team. A bit sad to leave Goodison because it was so important to me, my family, everybody over many years. But leaving it in a good way was pleasing.”
Referee: Chris Kavanagh. Assistants: Dan Cook, James Mainwaring. Fourth official: Tom Kirk. Fourth official: Andy Madley. VAR: Paul Howard. Assistant VAR: Sian Massey-Ellis.
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