The latest on Alexander-Arnold’s illness as Klopp talks up future rotation

Our analysis of the weekend’s Premier League matches from a Fantasy perspective continues as we spotlight the key talking points from Liverpool’s win over Crystal Palace.

For a summary of all six of Saturday’s games, click here.

LIVERPOOL 3-0 CRYSTAL PALACE

• Goals: Sadio Mane (£11.9m), Mohamed Salah (£12.5m), Naby Keita (£5.0m)
• Assists: Salah, Virgil van Dijk (£6.5m)
• Bonus: van Dijk x3, Salah x2, Alisson (£6.0m)

ALEXANDER-ARNOLD “ILL”

Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.5m) missed Liverpool’s meeting with Crystal Palace through illness but Jurgen Klopp confirmed that the right-back’s ailment wasn’t Covid-related, adding:

“This morning, after breakfast, Trent didn’t feel right. We actually planned to start him but Millie did an incredible job.”

Thiago Alcantara (£5.4m) also picked up a calf problem in the 3-0 victory over the Eagles which Klopp hopes isn’t serious.

KLOPP TO ROTATE MORE?

The start of the UEFA Champions League group stage usually results in a surge in rotation at Manchester City but we haven’t seen as much of it from Jurgen Klopp in recent years.

This season could be different, however.

The Liverpool boss had previously discussed how he didn’t want to rotate Andrew Robertson (£7.0m) out of the side in 2020/21 because of the disruption caused by injuries elsewhere. With just five Gameweeks gone of the current campaign, he has already done something he didn’t do in the Premier League last season – bench his first-choice left-back.

Kostas Tsimikas (£4.0m) was again the beneficiary against Crystal Palace, claiming five FPL points as the Reds registered their fourth clean sheet of the season.

Asked whether the intention was to chop and change a bit more in 2021/22, Klopp said after full-time:

“Yeah. I think we did in the past but maybe if you ask me like this then maybe not often enough, I don’t know. You want to line up the best possible team and there are different factors; one is who played together. Today it was ‘rhythm or freshness?’ and we decided for freshness. Otherwise, we could have played one or another again, but we didn’t want that.

“Joel {Matip] is not injured or anything, we just left him completely out of the squad so we don’t get into danger of bringing him on or whatever. Trent, we planned to bring him [in] but that was sorted as well, so that’s it.

“We will rotate, we always rotated, but you see in the last line in the last years we couldn’t rotate really because there were always a maximum of two fit [centre-backs] very often – and the third one was already a midfielder. In midfield, hopefully, we have the numbers to do [it] and we need that because, as I said before the game, this is the engine room of the team and we need to make the changes there. Up front, we have different opportunities as well, so that’s good. How often we do it, I didn’t make a plan already for the season, but as often as necessary and possible.” – Jurgen Klopp

SET-PIECE PROWESS AND JOTA FRUSTRATION

Mohamed Salah (£12.5m) and Sadio Mane (£11.9m) are, until Sunday’s games at least, now first and second for FPL points among midfielders this season.

Salah has reached 50 FPL points quicker than in any of his five previous campaigns.

Both players followed up rebounds from corner-kick situations to find the net against the Eagles, while Naby Keita (£5.0m) lashed in a third to complete a dead-ball treble.

Over a third of Liverpool’s goal attempts this season have come from set plays, with their tally of 43 shots from dead-ball situations vastly superior to that of any other side. Another reason, of course, why Alexander-Arnold is such a precious FPL commodity.

Diogo Jota (£7.7m) suffered another frustrating afternoon in front of goal, however, blazing over from four yards with his best effort.

Even the absence of Roberto Firmino (£8.8m) didn’t stop him from being hooked for the fourth time this season and the Brazilian is back to full training this week to further weaken Jota’s grip on a starting spot.

ANOTHER ENCOURAGING DISPLAY FROM PALACE

Crystal Palace opened their 2021/22 campaign with a chastening defeat to Chelsea but while the scoreline was identical at Anfield, the performance was more heartening.

Liverpool were generally frustrated from open play and the Eagles carved out some good openings at the other end, with Alisson (£6.0m) clawing a Wilfried Zaha (£6.9m) effort onto the woodwork and Christian Benteke (£6.3m) also hitting the post – an offside flag went up in that instance but a VAR call would have overturned it.

Alisson merited his bonus point with some sweeper-keeping, advancing to snuff out a couple of promising Palace attacks behind the much-changed backline and preventing substitute Odsonne Edouard (£6.5m) from following up a big chance late on.

“I think losing 3-0 is quite difficult and severe [given] the number of chances we created or the situations we created. We were really poor defending set pieces and you can’t concede three goals on set pieces at Anfield if you want to take something from the game.

“At the moment it’s more frustration. We knew how difficult this game was and I believe we played at times some really good football. The frustration was to concede those three goals on the set pieces because you expect, especially playing here, [you are more likely] to concede from open play.” – Patrick Vieira

Liverpool XI: Alisson, Tsimikas, Fabinho, Van Dijk, Konaté, Thiago (Keïta 62), Henderson (Origi 88), Milner, Mané, Salah, Jota (Jones 76).

Crystal Palace XI: Guaita, Ward, Guéhi, Andersen, Mitchell, Kouyaté (Olise 82), McArthur (Riedewald 65), Gallagher, Ayew, Zaha, Benteke (Edouard 65).