Trevor Steven: Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp should resist wholesale changes against Chelsea in Carabao Cup
Maurizio Sarri may have given us a clue as to how he will approach Wednesday's Carabao Cup tie at Liverpool when he remarked at the weekend that his Chelsea team were at least a year behind the Reds.
Although the Italian has started very well in west London, neither Chelsea nor any other Premier League team has matched Liverpool’s seven wins from seven games in all competitions so far this season.
And while both clubs boast big squads, I think that Jurgen Klopp’s is a little stronger and more capable of mounting a realistic challenge for all trophies on offer.
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For Sarri and Chelsea, the Premier League is everything. Finishing in the top four and getting back into the Champions League has to be their goal this term. It’s unrealistic to focus on anything else, especially since a cup win couldn’t save his predecessor Antonio Conte.
Sunday’s goalless draw at West Ham aside, Chelsea have been really good under the former Napoli coach. He has given the team a freshness which is all the more impressive considering the short amount of time he has had to work with the players – particularly those who returned to training late following the World Cup, like Eden Hazard.
It has been interesting to hear Hazard be very enthusiastic in his praise for Sarri and I’d suggest Roman Abramovich will be delighted with the noises coming out of the Chelsea dressing room.
With the two sides set to meet in the league at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, however, and given that this fixture is at Anfield, I expect we might see a few changes to Sarri’s line-up.
Striker Alvaro Morata, who looks to have lost his composure in front of goal, will probably be given a start in the hope of kick-starting his campaign, while the likes of wing-back Davide Zappacosta and midfielder Ross Barkley might expect to get a game too.
Ross Barkley could feature for Chelsea in the Carabao Cup tie (Source: Getty)
For Liverpool and Klopp, momentum is key. They are on a fantastic winning run and the priority ought to be to keep that going. You don’t want to burst that bubble.
Klopp can still rotate. There is flexibility in his squad, as he showed when switching from 4-3-3 to 4-2-3-1 for Saturday’s comfortable 3-0 victory at home to Southampton, and I’d expect the German to make alterations to the starting XI tomorrow evening.
He may be tempted to gamble on more wholesale changes. Liverpool have a tough run of fixtures coming up – after the league trip to Chelsea, they visit Napoli and then host champions Manchester City – and Klopp may anticipate Sarri resting a few players.
But if I was him I’d be tempted to pick a strong side. Why take your foot off the gas when you have an opportunity to lay down a marker against one of your rivals?
Both teams have enough quality in their ranks to be able to make a couple of changes without anyone really noticing. The big difference might be in the midfield, though.
Summer signing Fabinho has been used sparingly so far by Klopp (Source: Getty)
Liverpool can call on Fabinho, their £40m summer signing from Monaco who has barely played so far this year, £53m Naby Keita, who has started two of the last three games on the bench, and James Milner, one of their star performers so far, who only came on after half-time against Southampton when the hosts remained in second gear.
Chelsea on the other hand don’t have anyone to match the class of their first-choice midfield trio Jorginho, N’Golo Kante and Mateo Kovacic. Barkley is a good player but needs more games before he is back to his best.