Liverpool are the best team in the Premier League right now. They are six points clear at the top of the Premier League with a game in hand over their nearest rivals Arsenal.

They’ve only lost two games all season, a league defeat to Nottingham Forest at Anfield back in September and a more recent Carabao Cup defeat to Tottenham in early January.

They come into this game having left it late against Brentford to win 2-0 with a Darwin Nunez double and had another victory in midweek beating ten-man Lille 2-1.

Previous Fixture (Ipswich Town 0-2 Liverpool)

It was a promising return to the Premier League for the Super Blues who competed well for the first half before coming unstuck to two pieces of brilliance from Mohamed Salah, who first latched on to a pinpoint pass from Trent Alexander-Arnold to then cut the ball back across the box for Diogo Jota to slam home, and then found space down the right-hand side again to play a one-two with Dominic Szoboszlai and poke past Christian Walton as Leif Davis was just unable to cut out the pass.

Jacob Greaves and Omari Hutchinson both tested Alisson in the first half, whilst Liam Delap produced and excellent touch and turn around Jarell Quansah before being unable to find a blue shirt in the box as Liverpool players got back.

As has been the case in a lot of games this season, Town were unable to create anything of note in the second half as they faded out of the game.

They finished with seven shots but just two of them found the target, whereas at the other end Walton was forced into three saves preventing 0.3 goals.

His 36 passes represent the sixth highest in a game as Liverpool were happy to let Town have the ball in their defensive third. The Blues had more touches in the defensive penalty area than in any other game with 125. The recent 2-0 home defeat to Brighton is the next highest with 103.

Ipswich had 18 free-kicks, the second-highest they’ve had in all games this season as Liverpool were particularly sloppy in the tackle. Town’s five offsides were the highest in any game as they failed to exploit a high Liverpool backline.

For Liverpool, Alisson also had the ball a lot and had their most passes attempted by a keeper all season. Of those, 46 were long passes, the third-highest out of all of their games showing that Town’s press left them opting to go long on a number of occasions. They had 24 throw-ins, the second highest of all their games as they looked to target wide areas but Town largely defended them well.

Where they were good though was in blocking passes. Their 12 blocked passes was their second highest of all games. Only in the Manchester United game did they block more.

Sixty-two per cent is fifth-highest possession they have had in a game. Only against Nottingham Forest (both games), Crystal Palace and Leicester did they have the ball more.

However, the majority of those touches were in their own defensive penalty area/defensive third, with a very low number in the midfield third, which shows how effective Ipswich’s mid-block was. That number was their fourth lowest with only Manchester City, Arsenal and Brentford reducing them to less touches in the middle.

The Reds also attempted the most take-ons of any of their games so far this season which is understandable with Town cutting out the passing lanes through the middle. Overall Town defended those well with Liverpool only completing 11 out of 23.

Where they did find success though was getting into the penalty area. Their 12 carries into penalty area is their second-highest all season and also something Town have a habit of falling foul of. Manchester City managed 15 in their 6-0 victory and Bournemouth also managed 13 as they game from behind to win. This is definitely one of the areas that Ipswich will need to improve on when defending their box.

Players to watch

Cody Gakpo

Salah has 32 goal involvements in the Premier League, which is 11 more than Alexander Isak, who is the next player below him. However, he’s only scored once in his last four games. He’ll obviously be a threat but if anyone is likely to provide the key to unlock the door in this one it’s Cody Gakpo.

The 25-year-old Dutchman has slowly been integrated into the side but is now a crucial member of the front three, playing on the left-wing and cutting inside. He has six goals from just 4.36 xG with a goal conversion rate of 16%.

He also has the physical attributes that give Liverpool a different option if they do want to put balls into the box and has been excellent and finding the small gaps to get shots away. When they do leave his right boot they hit the target more often than not.

Ryan Gravenberch

Gravenberch has really come into his own this season as the deepest-lying of Liverpool’s midfielders. He reads the game so well, is comfortable on the ball and has energy to get about the pitch. His 36 interceptions are the highest of all midfielders and he ranks highly in ball recoveries.

The tackling in the middle is left to counterpart Alexis Mac Allister, who has made more tackles in the middle of the pitch than anyone else in the league and has been going under the radar a little bit this season.

Virgil van Dijk

If Town are to get anything from this game, they’ll have to get the better of Van Dijk who is in imperious form. The Dutchman has completed more passes than anyone else in the league with his passes covering a distance of 25,544 yards in total. They’re rarely misplaced with a completion rate of 91.5%, which is the 12th highest in the league.

In essence, it’s very rare you’ll get the ball off him and Town will likely target their press on him to force the ball out to Konate on the other side. It was that press in the first game between these sides that put Jarell Quansah under pressure and lost the youngster his place in the team.

Defensively Van Dijk is also solid with 65% of ground duels won and an even higher 74% of aerial ones.

January window

Liverpool have currently made no January additions after a very quiet summer. Their main focus will be trying to keep their star men with contract negotiations ongoing with Salah, Van Dijk and Alexander-Arnold.

Town, however, have been making moves with the addition of Paraguayan Julio Enciso on loan from Brighton. The 21-year-old has five goals and six assists in 51 appearances for the Seagulls, although a lot of those appearances came from the bench.

He should be relatively sharp having featured for the Seagulls in all four of their matches in the Christmas period, starting two of those. He also played in their FA Cup game against Norwich, getting himself on the scoresheet on that one.

The Teams

The Ipswich team is again a tricky one to pick. Every single player on the pitch struggled against Manchester City, so it’s hard to tell what manager Kieran McKenna will go for.

With the number of attacking options now in the building and with Axel Tuanzebe available again after injury, it seems likely that it will be back to a back four. Wes Burns could provide pace and running down the right with Omari Hutchinson and Jaden Philogene coming more central to provide support to Liam Delap.

For Liverpool, consistency has been their biggest ally this season. They rotated in quite a few positions in the Champions League so I expect they’ll return to a side that is close to the one that played against Brentford.

The one area that there is a question mark around is at left-back where Kostas Tsimikas has played the last two games in place of Andy Robertson. The ageing Scotsman could come back in for this one with his game time clearly being managed this year.

That leaves a bench containing Harvey Elliott, Darwin Nunez and Federico Chiesa and it’s likely that if Town are still in this game by the second half that Slot will switch to a front four rather than a front three and go all out for the win.

Prediction

I thought the game against Manchester City would be tough, despite their indifferent form, but I wasn’t expecting a 6-0 defeat, the biggest margin of victory for a team in any Premier League game this year. Liverpool have hit six once, against Tottenham in a 6-3 win, but their biggest margin of victory so far was the 5-0 win against West Ham in December.

They’ve scored two or three goals in 16 of their 21 Premier League games so far and also don’t concede many with just 20 goals shipped this season, the lowest in the league.

I’m going to be slightly positive though, I think Town do possess the quality to breach that defence at least once in a 3-1 defeat.

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