Next Saturday, 29th of November 2014, a drowned-in-disgrace Liverpool will measure forces with an inconsistent Stoke City at Anfield Road for round 13 of the English Premier League, on a match of the utmost importance for the home side, who are on terrible run of five consecutive matches, both domestically and internationally, without a single win.

After a fantastic stint at EPL last season, no one have certainly expected this amazingly poor overall performance from the Reds this term. Liverpool’s manager, Brendan Rodgers, is over there somewhere, lost in middle of a turmoil of big egos and confusing tactical systems and unable to find an adequate response for a team that is crying for help.

Last Wednesday’s night, Liverpool had everything in their favour to snatch a win at Sofia on the UEFA Champions League match against the Bulgarian title holders, Ludogorets, but they ended up conceding a last minute draw from a corner during which the team’s defence line again clearly left something to be desired. The Reds had several chances to seal the win but the lack of inspiration in the front only gave them with goals. The Bulgarian chill has put Liverpool on a very delicate situation in their group, since they are forced to defeat a well organized FC Basel at Anfield two weeks from now in order to grant a place on the next stage of the competition.

Next weekend’s match against Stoke is of capital importance both for Brendan Rodgers and for the team, since the speculation about the Northern Irish manager’s future at the helm of the Reds has already started. For that particular match, Liverpool’s manager will not be able to rely on the contribution of several important players such as Sturridge, Sahko, Balotelli and Flanagan, all of them currently sidelined due to injury.

As for Stoke, the Potters can probably be labeled as one of the most inconsistent teams of the English Premier League, as they can go from a meritorious win at White Hart Lane to a home defeat at the hands of Burnley. Their manager, Mark Hughes, is yet to find a point of balance for a team that has, in fact, several quality players but keeps failing to sync their voices and work as a team, instead of ruling over a bunch of footballers that get together on weekends to play ball.

Despite the absolutely negative moment they are currently experiencing, Liverpool are favourites to win next weekend’s match.

Liverpool

Stats: W-0 L-4 D-1

Recent Form - DLLLL

Stoke City

Stats: W-1 L-3 D-1

Recent Form - LWDLL

Possible Line-ups

Liverpool (4-3-3) – Mignolet - Manquillo - Skrtel - Lovren - Johnson - Allen - Henderson - Coutinho -Gerrard - Sterling - Lambert

Stoke City  (4-2-3-1) – Begovic - Cameron - Shawcross - Bardsley - Muniesa - Sidwell - N’Zonzi - Krkic - Moses - Walters - Diouf

Prediction

Liverpool 2 Stoke City 1