Weirdly enough this stumble in form (such as it is) hasn't come at the worst time. The games against Plymouth were always likely to be a bit experimental and the game against Southampton is effectively only at half time, and it's true that having those cup games has meant that our league form hasn't been too badly affected. We were beginning to show some signs of life against United, and with Henderson, Coutinho and Matip all back then you'd imagine our best team will start to play together again and we'll see an upturn in performances and results.
I'd go with the following team:
Mignolet; Clyne, Matip, Lovren, Milner; Henderson, Lallana, Wijnaldum; Origi, Firmino, Coutinho.
I think that Can might have to drop to the bench as he's looked leggy in recent games whilst our midfield is immeasurably better with Lallana and Wijnaldum in it. Aside from that the only real question to my mind is the choice between Origi and Sturridge. I genuinely think that Sturridge has lost so much pace that he is having real trouble being effective in games - he seems like he doesn't trust himself to open up and is playing within himself a lot more. It's a real shame, and I wonder if we'll ever see him back to his best, or if we'll have to wait for him to readjust his game to start seeing him scoring goals. In the meantime, I'd suggest it's more useful to have Origi's pace and power for an hour and then bring him on when defences are tired, rather than have him try to deal with long balls or balls in behind, neither on of which plays to his strengths at the moment.
It'd be good to see the likes of Woodburn and Ojo get a run out, as both of those players look to have a very bright future.
