Firmino benched but Klopp otherwise names strong side for the visit of Aston Villa

Jurgen Klopp has named a strong starting XI for Liverpool’s first home fixture as Premier League champions.

Aston Villa are the visitors to Merseyside, with kick-off at Anfield at 16:30 BST.

The Reds’ head coach has made three changes to his team following the 4-0 thrashing at Manchester City but there is no wholesale rotation and most of their highly owned Fantasy Premier League assets retain their starts.

Mohamed Salah (£12.6m) and Sadio Mane (£12.4m) both make the cut in attack, while the back four is at full strength as Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.8m), Andrew Robertson (£7.0m), Virgil van Dijk (£6.5m) and Joe Gomez (£5.3m) line up in front of Alisson (£6.2m).

Roberto Firmino (£9.4m), Georginio Wijnaldum (£5.4m) and Jordan Henderson (£5.3m) drop to the bench, with Divock Origi (£5.1m), Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (£6.1m) and Naby Keita (£5.8m) taking their places.

James Milner (£5.3m) misses out with a “tight muscle”.

There are five changes for Aston Villa following their 1-0 defeat to Wolves.

Pepe Reina (£4.2m) replaces the benched Orjan Nyland (£4.3m) between the posts, while Neil Taylor (£4.2m) is in for the injured Matt Targett (£4.3m) at left-back.

John McGinn (£5.3m), Anwar El Ghazi (£5.3m) and Trezeguet (£5.2m) also return, with Conor Hourihane (£5.7m), Marvelous Nakamba (£4.4m) and Mbwana Samatta (£5.4m) only among the substitutes.

The ‘out of position’ FPL midfielder Keinan Davis (£4.3m) leads the line as Dean Smith moves away from a two-man strike force to what looks like his regular 4-3-3.

Jack Grealish (£6.1m) was the most-sold midfielder of Gameweek 33+, with Salah also among the top ten FPL players for transfers out.

The Egyptian is nevertheless the most-captained Fantasy asset of this weekend, both overall and within the top 10k.

Villa pushed Liverpool hard in the reverse fixture back in Gameweek 11, with the Reds running out 2-1 winners.

Nevertheless, the Villans haven’t kept a single clean sheet away from home this season and have conceded more goals on the road than any other Premier League team.

Liverpool have scored 44 goals in their 16 home fixtures in 2019/20 and no club has conceded on fewer occasions on their own soil.

Liverpool XI: Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Gomez, Van Dijk, Robertson, Fabinho, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Keita, Salah, Origi, Mane.

Aston Villa XI: Reina, Konsa, Hause, Mings, Taylor, Luiz, McGinn, Trezeguet, Grealish, El Ghazi, Davis.

FPL Lessons Learned from Gameweek 33+

• Norwich City 0-1 Brighton and Hove Albion
• Leicester City 3-0 Crystal Palace
• Manchester United 5-2 Bournemouth
• Wolverhampton Wanderers 0-2 Arsenal
• Chelsea 3-0 Watford
• Burnley 1-1 Sheffield United
• Newcastle United 2-2 West Ham United
• Liverpool 2-0 Aston Villa
• Southampton 1-0 Manchester City
• Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 Everton