{"id":613957,"date":"2025-12-05T14:23:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T14:23:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/613957\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T14:23:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T14:23:19","slug":"liverpool-predicted-xi-vs-leeds-salah-returns-5-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/613957\/","title":{"rendered":"Liverpool Predicted XI vs. Leeds: Salah Returns, 5 Changes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Arne Slot<\/a> is expected to reshuffle his pack for Liverpool\u2019s third game in seven days, with Mohamed Salah<\/a> among those likely to come back in away to Leeds<\/a>.<\/b><\/p>\n

The Reds are on a run of seven games in 22 days and Saturday will mark their third game in the space of a week.<\/p>\n

After a 2-0 win over West Ham<\/a> and a deflating 1-1 draw with Sunderland<\/a>, with Slot making just one change to his side between those two, the likelihood is that new faces come in at Leeds<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So how could Liverpool line up in their 5.30pm kickoff?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 5 likely changes to Liverpool\u2019s XI vs. Leeds<\/p>\n

\"BURNLEY,<\/p>\n

While the temptation may be for Slot to avoid many changes following two games unbeaten, the intensity of the schedule and the workload on recently returning players must be acknowledged.<\/p>\n

At least five changes can be expected on Saturday evening, those being:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Conor Bradley<\/a> for Joe Gomez<\/a>
\u2022 Milos Kerkez<\/a> for Andy Robertson<\/a>
\u2022 Curtis Jones<\/a> for Alexis Mac Allister<\/a>
\u2022 Mohamed Salah<\/a> for Florian Wirtz<\/a>
\u2022 Hugo Ekitike<\/a> for Alexander Isak<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

That would mean a straight swap in both full-back roles, a new body in midfield plus a rejig of the attack with Salah on the right, Ekitike up front and Dominik Szoboszlai<\/a> as No. 10:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Alisson<\/a>; Bradley, Konate, Van Dijk, Kerkez; Gravenberch, Jones; Salah, Szoboszlai, Gakpo; Ekitike<\/b><\/p>\n

There are of course other possibilities, not least with Gomez and Wirtz starting a third game in seven days following their impressive performances.<\/p>\n

But with Inter Milan to come on Tuesday night it is essential that certain players are rested to avoid any further layoffs, while keeping Salah on the bench for a third consecutive game seems unfathomable. <\/p>\n

Liverpool will wary of the threat posed by Daniel Farke\u2019s Leeds<\/a>, who beat Chelsea<\/a> 3-1 in midweek, and the hope is that even a changed side can extend their unbeaten run to three.<\/p>\n

What Slot said about Cody Gakpo starting<\/p>\n

\"LIVERPOOL,<\/p>\n

Cody Gakpo<\/a>\u2018s consistent role in the side is proving a point of contention for Liverpool supporters, with the winger accused of one-dimensional play down the left.<\/p>\n

But speaking in his pre-match press conference, Slot insisted his No. 18 wasn\u2019t suffering from a lack of competition \u2013 and explained why Ekitike and Rio Ngumoha<\/a> weren\u2019t starting on that flank.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a player plays a lot, this gives him consistency, self-confidence,\u201d he told reporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsually if I talk to players that I don\u2019t play every single time mostly their answer is \u2018yeah, but I need to play every single minute, that gives me more confidence and I can bring the most out of myself\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow you say the opposite.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason why I haven\u2019t tried Hugo a lot of times off the left is an obvious one: because of the Alexander Isak<\/a> situation, that he\u2019s either been not available or not been available to start every single game.<\/p>\n

\"LONDON,<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd Rio has had his minutes, but I think for a 17-year-old he\u2019s already had much more minutes than any other 17-year-old at any other club in the Premier League<\/a>. So that\u2019s positive for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think Cody suffers from the fact that he doesn\u2019t have competition, because there are players that can play in his position.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsually, like I just said, players prefer to have a situation where they have the confidence and the understanding that they might play many minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arne Slot is expected to reshuffle his pack for Liverpool\u2019s third game in seven days, with Mohamed Salah…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613958,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8814],"tags":[748,393,4884,1860,191353,174074,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-613957","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leeds","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-leeds","12":"tag-leeds-vs-liverpool","13":"tag-team-selection","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115667417137954244","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=613957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}