Liverpool predicted line-up vs Brighton with six big changes as Reds shake up midfield

Liverpool will hope to extend what has largely been a positive first two months to the season when they visit fellow European qualifiers Brighton and Hove Albion on Sunday afternoon.

The Reds took a break from the Premier League on Thursday night when a Ryan Gravenberch goal helped them to a narrow home win in a Europa League group stage clash with Belgian club Union Saint-Gilloise. The win helped Klopp’s men bounce back from Saturday’s controversial home defeat against Tottenham Hotspur and also handed the Reds manager some intriguing team selection issues ahead of the meeting with the Seagulls.

Despite that loss in north London, Liverpool are still sat in the top four of the Premier League table after winning five of their seven opening games and they will hope to maintain the pressure on the likes of Manchester City, Arsenal and Spurs by seeing off Roberto Di Zerbi’s side on Sunday afternoon.

What has Jurgen Klopp said about his team selection issues?

One player that will definitely miss the trip to the south coast is midfielder Curtis Jones as he serves the first game of a three-match suspension for his controversial red card at Tottenham last weekend. Forward Cody Gakpo will also miss out after he suffered a knee injury when scoring in the defeat against Spurs.

Stefan Bajcetic (calf), Caoimhin Kelleher (knee) and Thiago Alcantara (hip) are also ruled out meaning Klopp will go into the game with the majority of the squad that claimed a Europa League win against Union SG on Thursday night.

The absence of Jones could mean Klopp will have to decided whether to hand a start to Wataru Endo or Ryan Gravenbach, with the latter receiving praise from the Reds boss in his pre-match press conference.

He said: “I think it’s really obvious how good he is, what a talent he is.

“He’s enjoying the situation, enjoying himself, that’s very important, (he) gets step by step all the confidence back, that’s really cool to see.

“We wanted to give him 90 minutes, but then we saw now he dropped a little bit and didn’t want to go there (with) any risks so that’s why we brought on ([Dominik Szoboszlai) for a few minutes. Everything goes in the right direction, that’s really helpful.”

What has Jurgen Klopp said about Brighton?

The Seagulls may have produced a heartening display in their 2-2 draw at Marseille on Thursday – but they are looking to recover from a heavy defeat in their last Premier League after falling to a 6-1 win against a rampant Aston Villa.

Despite that loss, Klopp unexplained in no uncertain terms just how highly he rates Brighton and manager Roberto Di Zerbi ahead of the Amex Stadium clash.

He said: “Brighton have had a few results that didn’t exactly go in their way but that is a completely normal situation in their development. They have had a lot of change, they’ve lost top players, one of them (Alexis Mac Allister) we got and they still play incredible football.

“We only got to watch a little bit before the game. They conceded in the first-half, at 2-0 down, but in the second-half they put Marseille massively under pressure and got a point there.

“We expect a tough game, a really tough game against one of the best sides in the league and the best coached team in the league.”

Predicted Liverpool lineup

Alisson; Trent Alexander-Arnold, Joel Matip, Virgil Van Dijk, Andy Robertson; Dominik Szoboszlai, Alexis Mac Allister, Ryan Gravenberch; Mohamed Salah, Darwin Nunez, Luis Diaz.