1. What team will Brendan Rodgers select?
Enough has been written about the rights and wrongs of the team selected by Brendan Rodgers for Tuesday night's trip to Real Madrid, but it's relatively obvious that his explanation for the whole charade isn't going to fool anyone. "I didn't rest players for Saturday," he said after the game. "I picked what I thought could maybe -- on the back on Saturday's game against Newcastle -- get the result for us tonight, and I think the performance showed that." Of course, his insistence that this was all a reaction to the calamity at St James' Park falls down a little when you note that he spoke to Steven Gerrard about his plans a week ago, so attention now turns to the side he will pick when Chelsea visit on Saturday.
If Rodgers was indeed telling the truth, that he felt his 'strongest' team simply hadn't been doing the business and that explained all the changes, then presumably we can expect a broadly similar side to trot out against the league leaders at Anfield. At least a few of Gerrard, Jordan Henderson, Raheem Sterling, Philippe Coutinho, Mario Balotelli and Dejan Lovren will remain on the bench, particularly given the creditable manner in which their replacements performed in the Bernabeu. Alternatively the big names will all return and Rodgers' words will be confirmed as a way of getting round the UEFA statute that states a manager must pick his best available XI, or perhaps his public justification for the changes were designed as a kick up the collective rears of those stars, an indication that their places are not guaranteed and that their performances must get better.
If, as is most likely, Rodgers was prioritising the league over Europe and essentially sacrificing the game against Real, then it does put even more pressure on this game. The trouble with resting players for one match with another in mind is that you pretty much have to win, or at least put in a significantly improved performance in the second encounter, to justify the whole thing. If Liverpool beat Chelsea then all will be forgiven, but if their display is as limp as last Saturday's, then eve more questions will be asked about the team in Madrid.
2. What can be done about Mario Balotelli?
Despite the colossal tonnage of words written and spoken about Mario Balotelli, many still seem to be criticising him for the wrong things. "He isn't working hard enough," seems to be the key strike against the Italian, when in fact working hard (or harder than usual) is one of the few things that he is actually doing. Everything else isn't really going to plan, to say the least and even on the relatively scant evidence we have, it isn't working so far. So what to do? Despite press stories to the contrary, it seems unlikely that Liverpool have written him off this early, and it would be foolish to dismiss a potentially talented asset with such haste. Balotelli has said that he prefers to play with another striker, and ideally of course that man would be Daniel Sturridge, but although the England man travelled to Spain in the week, the chances of him being thrown in against Chelsea are pretty slim.
Mario Balotelli is still seeking his first Premier League goal in Liverpool red.
An alternative could be to partner Balotelli with Rickie Lambert. The former Southampton striker has become something of a forgotten man at Anfield since joining them in the summer, making just one league start so far and not scoring any goals. One could argue that he simply hasn't been given a chance, so while it would be a significant gamble to throw him into a game of this magnitude, the idea of Balotelli playing just off Lambert, supported by Sterling and Coutinho, has potential to work rather well. And if nothing else, given the way Liverpool have played this season, anything is worth a shot.
3. Will the Chelsea midfield overrun Steven Gerrard?
The drawback of playing a formation as attacking as the one suggested above is that it would leave the Liverpool midfield a tad exposed. And, more specifically, it would leave Gerrard a tad exposed. The Liverpool captain still has his moments, but he is not the player he was, and perhaps his biggest weakness is that he looks like he's still trying to be the player he was. In his pomp Gerrard could win games on his own, barreling through from midfield and either scoring a crucial goal or creating the opportunity for someone else to do the same. These days he has been confined to a deeper role, but that seemingly hasn't stopped him from trying to make his own telling contributions, something painfully obvious in his brief cameo in Spain. Gerrard spent the majority of his 21 minutes on the pitch spreading long 'Hollywood' passes from deep to the flanks, trying to make an impact with one punch, a headline contribution to recall the days of yore.
Alas, his ability to do that is diminishing, and indeed his ability to influence games in most other ways is diminishing too, so Liverpool might be rather afraid of the prospect of him facing Cesc Fabregas and Nemanja Matic, possibly the most balanced and dangerous central midfield pairing in the Premier League. Oh, and then there's Eden Hazard in front of them, too. In most teams the holding midfielder would be charged with keeping an eye on the likes of Fabregas and Hazard, but Gerrard simply isn't that sort of player. Depending on whether Rodgers is in the mood to contain or attack Chelsea, don't be surprised if Lucas plays alongside Gerrard to help the old boy out.
Jose Mourinho usually has a trick up his sleeve when facing Liverpool.4. How will Jose Mourinho approach this game?
The default tactic for Mourinho in an away trip to Anfield would probably be containment. That's what he did last time, setting up his Chelsea side to stop a then-rampant Liverpool and look for a defensive mistake of some description, as far-fetched a plan as that might have been. It's all different now though with Chelsea the top dogs and Liverpool in something of a mess, so it's unlikely that Mourinho will adopt a similar approach to then, but rather one more reminiscent of the last time they visited Merseyside. That, as you may recall, ended in a 6-3 victory in an utterly frantic encounter at Everton, and the Premier League will have to go some ways to conjure up a more entertaining game this season. Mourinho is a brilliant manager but he also has quite an ego, as one or two of you have probably noticed, and the enmity between he and Liverpool has simmered for a decade now. In the Anfield club's current straitened circumstances, Mourinho may not be able to pass up an opportunity to really hammer home his superiority.
5. Will Liverpool 'learn how to defend'?
You wouldn't be enormously surprised if Mourinho had recruited Matic to his 'Poke Liverpool With A Stick' campaign of irritation. "Many teams this season have tried to park the bus in front of the goal against us, but we win," said Matic, when asked about the tactics Chelsea adopted last season. "It's not easy. If you defend, you have to know how to defend. In that game (in April) we showed we have quality. Nobody's happy when you lose a game, and they weren't happy after that match." An attempt to wind Liverpool up it may have been, but it's difficult to argue with Matic's sentiment. Liverpool have looked near-calamitous at the back for quite a while now, performing the quite remarkable feat of spending nearly 40 million pounds on their defence over the summer and making it worse. They have kept just two clean sheets all season, with Martin Skrtel belying his terrifying visage with some painfully meek showings, goalkeeper Simon Mignolet looking shakier than ever and Dejan Lovren struggling with the step-up from Southampton, if you can describe it as that given the current league table. Previously, you might doubt whether Liverpool could break down a defence as secure as Chelsea's, but this time, facing the likes of Diego Costa, Hazard and Fabregas, their problems are likely to be at the other end.
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