We'll need a right back playing right back - Giaccherini can be a real handful. Their forward line boasts nothing of any concern outside of Steven Fletcher, a man who is either sat in the treatment room or scoring headers from four yards out. If we can keep the two of them quiet (if they're both available, of course), then we should have no issues keeping a clean sheet.
It could be the perfect time to see what Sakho's like as a left-sided centre back, hopefully alongside Toure, and with actual full backs either side of them. Aah, full backs... remember when we had loads of them? Like, about 42 of the blighters? Yeah, we don't have a single fully fit one now.
Johnson, as ever, will be a big miss at right back - although with Kelly back in the squad for the midweek United game, then perhaps he'll be fit enough to give a solid 60 minutes there on Sunday (even if he's advised not to go forwards too often, his positioning and ability to manipulate his body shape when defending 1v1 out wide will be a massive bonus, and certainly a better option than playing a centre back out there).
The big question for me is in the centre of midfield. Gerrard and Lucas can work very well together when we play against teams that sit back and let them have the ball. However, as we've seen against Southampton the last two times we've played, as soon as teams press us high, they're not mobile enough to provide suitable passing lanes to the defenders, and Gerrard isn't disciplined enough not to go for the Hollywood ball 2 times out of every 5. The other side of it is that in a high pressing system, which Rodgers clearly would prefer us to play, neither midfielder has the legs to press high, recover, press high, recover, ad finitum for any more than half a game. It has to be a massive worry for the coaching staff, as they don't seem to trust Henderson to do that job, and Allen isn't fit. For me, the short-term option would be to push Gerrard to the tip of the triangle, and bring Henderson in alongside Lucas. From an attacking point of view, the CMs would have an easy (and quality) option of a ball forwards to a dangerous player in a dangerous area, which Coutinho has been providing since he joined, and from a defensive standpoint it can work too - Gerrard's role becomes simply to shadow Sunderland's deepest midfielder and negate their passing lanes to him, which will force the longer pass into more advanced players. This could work to our advantage, as Lucas is excellent at reading those 20-25 yard passes in to feet and intercepting them, and whilst Henderson doesn't possess the same nouse, he does have the energy and mobility to put immediate pressure on the receiving player.
Looking at the attacking area, it's fairly simple - Moses, Suarez, plus one other. Hopefully, we can afford to rest Sturridge, and hopefully we can afford to not replace him with Aspas, who looks like a boy playing against men at the moment. I'd like to see Sterling given a start, although he's not necessarily playing too well either at the moment, but it's going to be easier for him to be part of the team and build his way into the game than being asked to come on with 15 minutes left and alter the course of a match.
Sunderland's back four is poor - really poor. Mobility will kill them. Moses, Suarez, and Sterling, being fed by Gerrard, would be great against these.
If we turn up for 90 minutes, then realistically anything less than a comfortable win shouldn't be acceptable. Sunderland really are that shite at the moment.
