Liverpool go into this massive Champions League game in average form but knowing that a win will keep their season motoring. Beat Basel and The Champions League can be put on the back shelf until February while Liverpool try to recover their form and fitness to key players.
In terms of injuries there is very little change from the weekend. Long-term absentees Daniel Sturridge and Jon Flanagan remain sidelined whilst Mario Balotelli is still suffering from the groin problem which has kept out of the last couple of games. Sakho is still sidelined too.
All this means that Liverpool are still short in terms of fire power. It is in stark contrast to last season where they were unbelievably good up top.
The departure of Luis Suarez and protracted injury problems of Sturridge mean that Liverpool have regularly looked toothless so far this season.
There has also been talk of late about Liverpool’s over reliance on Steven Gerrard. This is natural because world-class players are few and far between. Manchester United had similar problems in replacing Paul Scholes asked Ryan Giggs. Meanwhile Manchester City are currently scratching their heads as to who will succeed Yaya Toure.
But you would have to imagine that the players will be up for this one. The famous Anfield crowd most certainly will and we believe that if Liverpool start with a high tempo then they can’t fail to lose this one.
Steven Gerrard will most probably be pulling the strings again and at 34 he can’t do it for too much longer. But that’s a problem for another day.
TFF prediction: Liverpool 2-1 Basel