Theo Squires was intrigued by something he noticed on the Liverpool teamsheet that UEFA have given to journalists at tonight’s Europa League game against LASK.
As expected, Jurgen Klopp has made numerous changes, with only Mo Salah and Kostas Tsimikas retained from last weekend’s draw at Manchester City.
The Greece international will play at left-back, although there appears to be some confusion as to who’ll line up at the other side of the defensive quartet.
In the Liverpool Echo‘s live matchday blog (19:10), Squires wrote: “Our UEFA teamsheets have just been handed out, and they have Jarell Quansah at right-back and Joe Gomez in the middle.
“While Quansah can play there, having filled the role at the Academy and made one senior appearance on the flanks as a substitute this season, I suspect they might have got those two the wrong way round tonight.”
As Squires pointed out, Quansah has occasionally played at right-back while progressing through the academy ranks, and he had a fleeting appearance in that position against Brentford earlier this month (Transfermarkt).
However, Gomez is far more accustomed to playing out wide than the 20-year-old, so we also reckon that the UEFA teamsheet got those two players mixed up.
Perhaps it isn’t an error and Klopp has spotted something which has prompted him to deploy a curious tactical switch, although we doubt that he’d experiment to that degree considering that Liverpool still need more points to ensure their progression in the tournament.
Whatever the case might be, we’ll get our definitive answer when the match begins at 8pm UK time.
#Ep96 of The Empire of the Kop Podcast: EOTK Insider with Neil Jones🎙️