By Jordan Carreno

The Reds are back at Anfield to take on Red Star Belgrade in their third Champions League group stage match. Kickoff is Wednesday at 3:00 PM EST.

Liverpool v Red Star Belgrade — 10/24/2018 2000 GMT

Once again, the Reds are here with a cure for your hump-day ailments in the form of midweek Champions League football. With the temperature dropping here in the Bay Area, don’t think it too strange if you come down with a strange cold or flu for two hours on Wednesday afternoon that gets you out of work.

Like last time, our match will be streaming on the lovely (NOT!) B/R Live service, but have no fear as all 3 LFC Tampa Bay locations will be open, serving, and showing the match. So, with all that being said let’s get into these pre-match talking points.

Controlling Our Destiny

When Insigne put in that last minute winner at Napoli and the final whistle went, it was easy to feel despair. It felt as if we had squandered the hard work of the first match and had now put ourselves in a tough position to qualify out of the group. However, a quick glimpse at the group and the fixtures ahead paints a different story.

Whilst we would all prefer for the Reds to maraud through the group stage, beating each opponent home and away by a healthy margin, the quality of our opponents and the nature of the competition wouldn’t have allowed for that to be the realistic expectation. Given the nature of the run our first two matches in the group were squeezed into, it is very likely we would have all taken 3 points out of the first two match before a ball was kicked.

This would have been especially true given that we have two fixtures against the 4th seeded team back to back. That the Reds have grabbed those 3 points, and find themselves in a qualifying spot, bodes well for their chances of getting out of the group headed into these Red Star fixtures.

It was always going to be a case of beating Red Star twice to ensure qualification. With all due respect to the Serbian champions, these are the type of teams we should expect Liverpool to handle easily. With our other two rivals for qualification playing each other back to back, doing the business twice against Red Star will put us on the brink of making it out the group. In that sense, we are in the favorable position of still controlling our own destiny.

To the maths: Two wins for PSG will see them on 9 points and Napoli on 4. Two wins for Napoli will see them on 10 points and PSG on 3. A win and a draw for PSG will have them on 7 and Napoli on 5. A win and draw for Napoli will have them on 8 points and PSG on 4. So, if the Reds do what is expected and get the 6 points out of the next two to put them on 9 points, they would only need to pick up 2 more points, at the most, to qualify. With one of the last two fixtures being a night at Anfield, you’d have to fancy their chances of doing just that.

A Maribor Moment

Last year, the match at Maribor was the moment our attack began to find some form — could the Red Star match present a similar opportunity?

It’s been said before but it bears repeating. Eventually our attack is going to click and we’re going to start putting in the goals. It is more of a question of when than if our attack is going to start showing the same promise it did towards the end of last season. With a home match against a clearly less talented squad on the menu, this might be the perfect moment for our attacking play to finally find its feet.

Last season, that spark came in the form of a 7–0 away victory at Maribor. Up until that point, there we a lot of questions surrounding our attack and whether or not it was going to be potent enough to help us accomplish our goals as a club. Though we had put in plenty of good performances going forward, we had yet to be consistent and yet to really show the full power of our abilities. After Maribor however, we began to find a new confidence and started to show the ruthlessness hat became commonplace in the back half of last season.

Whilst there was more pressure last season to finally click in an attacking sense given our defense frailties, this year it is more of a case of a growing impatience to see the same free flowing forward play we grew accustomed to. Though it is nice to finally have a stout backline that is capable of dragging us over the line, there’s no denying the desire to see a return to the goals. A European night against favorable opponents might be just the remedy needed for our attacking play to start to hit top form.

Finally Fab’s Time?

Is now the time for Fabinho?

Fabinho continues to be the 40 million pound elephant in the room. Outside of his start in the League Cup, we have seen very little of the Brazilian midfielder in a Red kit. Though a bedding in period should have been expected with him coming from Ligue 1 and given the handling of players like Oxlade-Chamberlain and Robertson, eventually he is going to have to start making appearances.

Though we can’t afford a subpar performance in the upcoming match, we surely must begin to properly bed in Fabinho before he is truly needed. Also, with Milner and Lallana just coming back from injury and Henderson picking up a slight strain against Huddersfield, we surely can’t afford over extending our other midfielders to shelter Fabinho’s development. In order to properly integrate into the side, Fabinho will need some game experience with other first teamers.

Klopp had taken time recently to point out how far along Fabinho has come in training in the last 2 months. He also made the decision of throwing Fab into the action in a tightly contested Premier League match at Huddersfield on Saturday. All signs point to the Brazilian midfielder edging closer and closer to breaking into the first team. An Anfield night in Europe could be the perfect opportunity to give the big man his first proper test.

Prediction

We’re back to Europe and so we’re back to looking at our European prediction table. Last match, David and I backed our way into a point by predicting that Napoli would score a goal. It’s a bitter point to take but it leaves us even at 3 points a piece after 2 matches. The tension is building.

Do I even need to write a paragraph after spending a whole talking point talking about how this could be a similar match to our match at Maribor last season? Okay.

Red Star looked pathetic away to PSG in their last match in the Champions League. They also won’t have any away fans to cheer them on in what is one of the most hostile environments on the continent. In fact, the club have gone and decided to sell those away tickets to 18–21 year old Liverpool supporters, which will only add to the atmosphere on the night.

On our side of things, we’re due to wallop someone. We are far too good in our attacking third to continue scoring 1-to-2 goals a match. Eventually someone is going to feel the full wrath of the Red machine. Sprinkle in there our history of goal-fests in the Champions League (I’m looking at you Besiktas, Maribor, and Spartak Moscow) and I have an even better feeling than usual that we will thrash them. Yeah, I’ve predicted massive wins in 3 out of our last 4 matches and, yeah, they’ve all ended up much closer than I’d imagined. This time, however, I’d be insane not to predict a proper beat down of the opponent. 9–0 and we set the new record for margin of victory in a Champions League match.

David’s Prediction: Naturally, I’m going to be a bit more reserved, though I do think we overpower the Serbs in impressive fashion, finally getting back to the dominant offensive performances we became so accustom to last season. A well rested Bobby Firmino nets a brace, Trent Alexander Arnold plays and finally bags that free kick we’ve all been waiting for, Shaq adds a fourth after dribbling through three players and Fabinho sneaks one in for good measure. 5–0 to the Reds. I propose a bonus point for me if any of these very specific goal predictions comes true. Up the Mighty Reds!