Liverpool v Watford - confirmed team newspublished at 11:39 BST 2 April 2022
11:39 BST 2 April 2022
Four changes for Liverpool from their last Premier League match - the 2-0 win at Arsenal on 16 March.
Mohamed Salah, who was pelted with missiles and targeted by green laser pointers as Egypt missed out on the World Cup on Tuesday, returns along with Roberto Firmino, Joe Gomez and Curtis Jones.
Trent Alexander-Arnold has recovered from a hamstring injury and starts on the bench.
Gomez is making only his second Premier League start of the season. Sadio Mane and Luis Diaz are on the bench.
Liverpool XI: Alisson, Gomez, Matip, van Dijk, Robertson, Jones, Henderson, Thiago, Salah, Firmino, Jota.
Sarr under the spotlight ahead of Liverpool gamepublished at 19:22 BST 1 April 2022
19:22 BST 1 April 2022
Geoff Doyle, BBC Three Counties Radio
Watford produced one of their best performances of the season last time out when they beat Southampton 2-1 - certainly the best since Roy Hodgson took over. So the three-week break since then and the absence of a number of players on international duty has come at a frustrating time.
The Hornets have seven weeks to save their season and stay in the Premier League. The match at Liverpool this weekend is one they are unlikely to gain much from, which then leaves them eight games to avoid relegation.
It’s the home matches which are going to prove pivotal and they have five still to come at Vicarage Road, all winnable: Leeds, Brentford, Burnley, Leicester and one to be re-arranged against Everton. And yet Watford are a better team away from home.
At Vicarage Road Watford have lost their past eight in a row. Away from home the Hornets have won two, drawn two and lost two in their previous six.
Much focus will be on Ismaila Sarr at Anfield. He has been linked with Liverpool, although that was some time ago and could have simply been as a result of his friendship with Sadio Mane.
Sarr will return to the Watford squad having made his return from injury playing alongside Mane for Senegal. Normally you would assume he would return straight to the team, but Cucho Hernandez, Joao Pedro and Emmanuel Dennis played so well at St Mary’s it’s difficult to know who will be dropped - whoever is will feel very hard-done by.
Reports last week suggest Sarr will leave Watford at the end of the season whether they stay up or not. The Hornets signed him for a lot of money (reportedly about £30 million) so it will be interesting how much he eventually goes for considering he’s had another injury-hit season.
The owners will do well to make a significant profit on the player given this. What they will want is him playing from now until the end of the season to showcase his undoubted talent.
Lawro's predictions: Liverpool v Watfordpublished at 18:09 BST 1 April 2022
18:09 BST 1 April 2022
Mark Lawrenson takes on actor and Crystal Palace fan Jim Piddock in the latest round of Premier League predictions.
Lawro's prediction: 3-0
Performances don't matter now for Liverpool or Manchester City - results are all that matter from here in the title race.
Liverpool have won their past nine league games but they have to forget all the noise and just focus on winning this one. Their task on Saturday will be to break down Watford because we know exactly how Roy Hodgson will set the Hornets up.
I don't think the Reds will have too much trouble there, though.
Watford got a good win last time out - at Southampton on 13 March - but we have seen them flicker into life before and then put in a disappointing display in their next game. I'd be very surprised if they held out for 90 minutes at Anfield.
Hodgson hopes 'to surprise the football world'published at 15:51 BST 31 March 2022
15:51 BST 31 March 2022
Image source, PA Media
Watford manager Roy Hodgson says his team have "tied a chain around our neck and attached a rock to it" as he prepares for a daunting trip to title-chasing Liverpool on Saturday.
"We've got to pull that with us now wherever we go," he said, "because we're points behind the teams we need to catch up.
"In any league, once you get some points behind and the numbers of games starts to dwindle, your job becomes more and more difficult each time."
Nevertheless, Hodgson is still hoping to "surprise the football world" by getting a result at Anfield and build on their win at Southampton last time out.
"You need to be realistic," he said. "There are teams where you would like to think that with the quality we have we can give those teams a good game and get a result.
"And there'll be other games where you're hoping your team will put off some sort of exceptional performance and get the result that no-one expects.