LFC Physio Room: Latest Injuries
AT DORTMUND WHAT WAS KLOPP'S RECORD VS AUGSBURG?
Klopp will be aware that matters of form are pretty much irrelevant but the former Dortmund manager will cling to his strong record against Augsburg. In eight Bundesliga games against Augsburg, Klopp lost just once, winning five and scoring 20 goals. His biggest victory over Augsburg came in his first encounter. With a goal from Mario Gotze and a Robert Lewandowski hat-trick sealing a 4-0 win at the Westfalenstadion. The last time he lined his side up against Augsburg, Dortmund lost 1-0, with Bobadilla the goalscorer.
HOW WILL KLOPP LOOK TO SET US UP?
It's hard to tell but he will set us up not to concede, to stay solid as a unit for 90 minutes.
Klopp will want us to focus on not conceding first and foremost. Look to take the match back to Anfield and take advantage of it being our home ground, with the knowledge it's a European night and got 40 odd thousand supporters in the ground. You would think. That said recently playing at home hasn't been much of an advantage really. All our best matches have been away from home against teams looking to play football. Maybe playing away in Germany might suit us and we'll see us capitalize on it, who knows what will happen. It has the potential to be an exciting couple of ties.
Personally I'm hoping a few of our younger player get some minutes but I could understand if Klopp goes for a full strength side to face Augsburg. For me Firmino will hopefully start upfront, I think he has a pretty good record against Augsburg from memory so yeah start him upfront either alone or alongside somebody like Sturiddge who could very well start depending on how he pulled up after the match vs Villa on Sunday. Who will play at the base of midfield is another big question, I'm just guessing here but one of Henderson and Can will be starting you would think but one of the young players - the likes of Chirivella, Brannagan or Stewart could well start you would think. Maybe start Ward?
Taking all that into account, I would love to see the following (ohh I haven't watched the match vs Villa yet):
Ward
Clyne-Lucas-Sahko-Moreno
Lallana-Henderson-Steward-Coutinho
FIrmino-Sturridge
Throw Ward in the deep end, it's not like he could any worse than Mignolet.
If we see somebody like Steward in midfield, should we play Lucas as a center back? .. I think yes.
Swap Henderson for Can depending form or who is in better shape come Thursday. But to be honest I reckon that one of the young deep lying midfielders deserves a start. Let's try something different because what we have been persisting with hasn't proved consistent and that's being nice. As for the inclusion of Lallana, I was going to say Milner but then you would hope that Lallana would offer you more creativity going forwards- then bring on Milner to lock up shop later in the match if we have something to protect... etc etc. Also apart from Ibe do we have anybody else who could play that midfield role?
Pairing Firmino with Sturiddge is a no brainer. If not Origi will do.
ANYWAYS THE funny thing about this match up is Augsburg have too played thier better football away from home, like us in thst respect and seeing as they still have some good quality attacking players (Chelsea sign Ghanaian left-back Baba Rahman from Augsburg last summer for £21 million - Baba last season was one of thier key players and a big reason why they finished 5th). But put bluntly Augsburg are not the team they were last season which for us is a good thing.
Previous meetings
• The sides are meeting for the first time and this Augsburg's maiden date with English opponents.
Form guide
• Augsburg have lost two of their three European home fixtures to date, those matches producing 14 goals.
• Liverpool are unbeaten in Europe this season (W2 D4), that run including all four of their continental games under Klopp (W2 D2).
• Founded in 1907, Augsburg finished fifth in Germany last term to qualify directly for the UEFA Europa League group stage.
Trivia and facts
• The journey from Liverpool to Augsburg is around 1,100km.
• Augsburg's Raúl Bobadilla and Athletic Club's Aritz Aduriz are the six-goal top scorers in this season's UEFA Europa League.
• Liverpool left-back Alberto Moreno and Augsburg midfielder Piotr Trochowski were team-mates at Sevilla FC from 2012 to 2014.
• Augsburg right-back Daniel Opare featured in the second leg as Beşiktaş ousted Liverpool last year.
• Augsburg's Austrian goalkeeper Alex Manninger was at Arsenal FC from 1997 to 2002, as back-up to David Seaman.
• Augsburg's Greek international Kostas Stafylidis played in England with Fulham FC in 2014/15 - he and Emre Can were team-mates at Bayer Leverkusen.
• While at Leverkusen, Can scored half his Bundesliga goals against Augsburg.
• Augsburg's South Korea striker Ji Dong-won was on the books at Dortmund during Klopp's time there.
AUGSBURG AND THIER HISTORY
• Augsburg is a German football club based in Augsburg. They about a one hour drive from Bayern Munich.
• Thier average attendance last season was 29,325.
• Thier main sponser is WWK Versicherungsgruppe and thier kit sponser is Nike.
• Thier home kit is very similar to Ajax's, just reverse the colors.
• Thier arch rivals are TSV 1860 Munich, FC Bayern Munich and FC Nuremberg.
WHO IS MARKUS WEINZIERL?
Markus's playing career peaked when he spent a season with the first-team squad at Bayern München, though he never played a senior game. Augsburg appointed him in 2012 following a spell at SSV Jahn Regensburg and he has thrived in the role, last term's fifth-place finish a club best. He led his side to 15th, 8th and 5th in the Bundesliga in the last three campaigns, qualifying for the Europa League for the first time in 2014/15. Weinzierl was the mastermind behind Augsburg’s victory over Bayern Munich in 2014, ending Bayern’s 53-match unbeaten streak and securing Augsburg’s first ever win over Munich.
At Augsburg, Weinzierl typically utilises a 4-2-3-1 formation. The aim being, to make full use of the pace of his wide players and the physicality of his centre-forwards. Weinzieri's key players are: Alexander Esswein and Raul Bobadilla. Both play important roles in Weizierl’s 4-2-3-1 formation. Blessed with plenty pace, Esswein provides industry and flair on the right wing for Augsburg, and has scored three goals in 16 Bundesliga appearances so far this season.
Combining with Esswein in the Augsburg attack is Raul Bobadilla:
Bobadilla has for sure become a key player for Weinzierl since his move from FC Basel in 2013. You can see from the picture below that Weinzierl likes his three attacking midfielders to be more direct and physical rather than being more passive play making type midfielders. Augsburg will want thier fullbacks pushing on as Weinzieri had in Baba last season.
To give you some idea this is following picture is based on last season:
Striker Raul Bobadilla was Augsburg’s top scorer in 2014/15 and this season has a brillant recond in Europe this year (joint top in the Europa atm), as of now it's a goal every 90 minutes. He will be playing in a floating role at the tip of Augsburg’s attack. Bobadilla has already scored a pretty special goal against us, when playing for Young Boys:
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