How Liverpool could line up against Everton

Liverpool will look to return to winning ways in the Premier League when they welcome local rivals Everton to Anfield for the Merseyside derby on Saturday.

The champions have slipped down to sixth place, 16 points adrift of leaders Manchester City, having lost their last three top-flight outings, and five of their last eight.

However, they bounced back to take control of their Champions League last-16 tie against RB Leipzig in midweek, winning the away first leg 2-0 to put one foot in the quarter-finals.

Here, Sports Mole looks at how Jurgen Klopp could set his side up for the 289th Merseyside derby.

Out: Diogo Jota (knee), Joel Matip (ankle), Joe Gomez (knee), Virgil van Dijk (knee)
Doubtful: Naby Keita (muscle), Fabinho (muscle), James Milner (hamstring)

> Click here for Liverpool's latest injury and suspension news ahead of this match

The impressive nature of Liverpool's win over Leipzig in Budapest on Tuesday night could lead Klopp to name an unchanged XI for this match.

The one change to availability sees Naby Keita back in contention after two months out, with the midfielder having returned to training earlier this week.

With midfield options more plentiful than other areas of the pitch, Klopp is likely to ease Keita back into action via a substitute appearance first, with Curtis Jones, Georginio Wijnaldum and Thiago Alcantara set to continue in the middle of the park.

Thiago suffered a knee injury in the reverse fixture which kept him out for most of the first half of the season and will no doubt be keen to gain revenge by helping Liverpool continue their derby dominance over their local rivals.

Virgil van Dijk was also notably injured in the controversial reverse fixture, and he remains sidelined along with fellow centre-backs Joe Gomez and Joel Matip.

Jordan Henderson and Ozan Kabak are expected to start alongside each other for the third consecutive game as Klopp looks to build an elusive centre-back partnership, with Saturday's match expected to come too soon for Fabinho.

James Milner is also a major doubt while Diogo Jota is still absent too, but Alisson Becker will start again having kept his 50th Liverpool clean sheet in midweek - a particularly welcome one after costly errors in his last two league games.

While Liverpool as a team have been struggling of late, Mohamed Salah's scoring rate has not slowed and the Egyptian's goal in midweek was his 24th of the campaign - already surpassing his tally for last season.

Indeed, among all players in Europe's top five leagues only Robert Lewandowski and Erling Braut Haaland have scored more goals this season than Salah, who also leads the way in the Premier League scoring stakes.

ID:435767:cQx