Matchday 35 has the Reds heading over to Wales to take on Cardiff City. Kickoff is scheduled for 11:00 AM EST on Sunday.

Cardiff City v Liverpool — 04/21/2019 1600 GMT

The title run is coming down to the wire and the Reds are still in with a shout. This is all you could have asked for at the start of the season. This weekend’s match will pit title challengers against relegation scrappers, which could mean a very intense match. As always, all 3 LFC Tampa Bay locations will be open, serving, and showing the match. So, come on down and join your fellow Tampa Bay Reds in cheering Liverpool over the line. With all that being said, let’s get into the talking points.

Relegation Desperation

Cardiff City currently find themselves in a proper fight to avoid relegation. As things stand, they’re in 18th, the last relegation spot. For Cardiff, these last 4 games of their season will be about doing everything possible to ensure they don’t drop back down to The Championship. It will mean that Liverpool should expect a dog fight on Sunday.

Currently, Cardiff City are trying to chase down either Brighton or Southampton, who both have a game in hand on the Bluebirds. They’re five points behind Southampton and two points behind Brighton. Unlike the match against Fulham a couple weeks ago, Cardiff City have a legitimate hope of surviving the drop. With Brighton set to play 4 of their 5 matches against teams in the top 8, Cardiff will feel there is a very real chance to secure safety. However, that chance will all rely on picking up as many points as possible.

Whilst normally a game against a side at the top of the table might lend itself to treating the match as a bit of a throwaway, with so little time left in the season it will mean Cardiff will genuinely want and need to get something out of the game. Add in a chance to “spoil the party” and the motivation levels of Neil Warnock’s side could be very high. This will also lead to the home crowd getting behind the side and being up for the challenge. So, despite it looking a fairly easy match on paper, we should expect plenty of fight from Cardiff.

Ultimately Liverpool have the tools to make easy work of this Cardiff side. Though the Bluebirds will be up for the challenge and fully motivated, so will Liverpool as they seek an elusive Premier League title. It will be on the Reds to weather any flurries from the home-side and avoid sinking to the level of their opponents. If Liverpool continue in the rich vein of form they’ve discovered recently though, then they should have no problems with this Cardiff City side.

The Great Rotate Debate

Jurgen Klopp has the type of selection issues you want Liverpool to have

One of the decisions to be made by Jurgen Klopp this weekend will be whether he should rotate the side. His decision to rest some key players in the second leg against Porto shows that Klopp is now attempting to manage minutes in order to get the most out of the team in this end of season run in. Plus, with some notable players returning from injury, there’s a need to get the returning players up to speed so they can contribute if or when they are called upon. However, given the stakes at hand and the fine margins, it might be too much of a risk to significantly rotate the squad.

The case for rotating is a strong one. Firstly, it is no accident that Liverpool under Jurgen Klopp finds itself in the position of having multiple, genuinely great options at various positions around the pitch. There might be some small pieces missing here and there, but for the most part Liverpool has a squad that can now rotate and not experience a significant drop off in performance. We saw as much on Wednesday night in Portugal. The point in having this depth is to use it, especially at this point in the season with the current, lofty goals at hand.

Which brings us to the second reason that rotation makes sense; Klopp needs to try to bring as many of the players returning from injury up to speed as quickly as possible. Joe Gomez, Xherdan Shaqiri, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Dejan Lovren, these are all players who, when at full match and physical fitness, would be able to add significant contributions to the Liverpool cause. Though that may mean substitution appearances for someone like Ox, the likes of Gomez, Shaq, and Lovren are probably ready to be slotted into the starting line-up.

Of course it might not be worth the risk. Jurgen Klopp has stumbled into a winning formula that has Liverpool producing its best football of the season. As discussed earlier, this particular match has the potential to be tougher than it appears and Klopp might want to wait til a later date before switching things up too much in the league. With a Huddersfield home match in the near future, there may be better opportunities to build up match fitness and give players breaks.

It wouldn’t be too surprising to see Klopp give a start to someone like Lovren or Gomez when the line-up comes out on Sunday. It also wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility for Klopp to revert back to the 11 that featured against the likes of Chelsea and Porto at home. In reality, the starting line-up has been quite fluid for a few weeks which is just a symptom of Liverpool’s new found depth. So, it will be interesting to see the starting line-up Klopp decides to field on Sunday.

Double Dreams

This Liverpool side has made us dream again

I know there exists sections of the Liverpool fanbase that posses levels of superstition which makes them incapable of uttering the words “Liverpool could do the double”, but I am not one of those people. Liverpool could do the double. Not “A double” but “The Double”. When Roy Hodgson was praising “famous draws” to crap teams at Anfield, the idea of Liverpool doing The Double would have been the stuff of fairytales. Now though, less than a decade on from the depths of near administration and bankruptcy, Liverpool are legitimately contending for The Double.

Manchester City, for all their universal praise and adulation of being the greatest team ever, aren’t in for The Double. Tottenham aren’t in for The Double. We stand alone in having a chance to win both the Champions League and the Premier League. We should hype it up, we should enjoy it, and we should all dream of this incredible thing this Liverpool side can do.

Liverpool were handed so many obstacles to even be in with a legitimate shout at accomplishing the rare feat of the European Cup and League double. They were handed the group of death in the group stages of the Champions League. They’ve had to hang with a Manchester City side that is on pace to have another historic season in the league. They’ve been forced to contend with carrying our demons from past title challenges and washing them away.

PSG, Napoli, Red Star, Bayern Munich, FC Porto. Playing a midfielder at center-back and a winger-turned-midfielder-turned-left-back-turned-midfielder at right-back. All the narratives and all the banter. Against it all, this side have overcome. This Liverpool side have already been incredible. This Liverpool side have already done the impossible. We should celebrate how great they are. We should dream of amazing things.

Liverpool can do The Double. Whether they do or don’t is an issue to be tackled at a later date. For the time being, we can all still dream of The Double because this Liverpool side have done the business. So, we should dream when we can. As we know, these opportunities aren’t a given. Though we are now in a position as a club under Klopp where these chances might become a regular occurrence over the next few years, we should all live in this moment. This amazing moment where Liverpool could possibly win the European Cup and Premier League and do The Double in the most spectacular of fashions.

Prediction

We are back to the league table for this one where I’ve regained my advantage following the Chelsea match. I picked up 2 points for correctly predicting a Liverpool win with two goals while David only got 1 for predicting the victory. That means I now lead 46–45. Fine margins.

Who really knows what goes on in Neil Warnock’s head. All I know is, for some reason, he hates Liverpool and that he will want to spoil our party while also not getting relegated. That’s Neil Warnock’s wet dream. Their win against Brighton in the midweek means that they have a little more flexibility to lose this match which means it also allows Warnock the chance to park a massive bus.

For us, I think we see Gomez come in for Trent at right-back and Dejan Lovren come in for Joel Matip. I also think we revert back to the Naby Keita, Hendo, Fab midfield that was looking quite good for us leading into the game midweek. I also think Klopp goes with our usual suspects up front with a view to getting the game comfortably won so he can use substitutions to give one or two of Salah, Bobby, and Mane some rest.

Regardless of what Warnock does, I just don’t think there is anything Cardiff can do to stop the Reds. Even if Cardiff City resorted to rendering Liverpool’s team bus useless, Liverpool would still find a way to show up and beat this Cardiff team. Jurgen and his team are thoroughly enjoying this double push and they aren’t going to let anyone, especially not this Cardiff team, stop the ride. 5–0.

David’s Prediction: I’m on the train back to Gatwick and I’ve realized that it has only been 6 days since we watched the Reds slaughter Chelsea at Anfield. I predict we see that very same lineup again with a result that sees the Reds bury three past Cardiff before half, and then simply do possession drills to see it out.