Eintracht Frankfurt vs Liverpool live: Team news and lineups ahead of Champions League clash – UK Times

Drastic times call for drastic measures – and in Liverpool’s case, those measures are worth £294m.

All three of Hugo Ekitike, Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz start together under Arne Slot for the first time, which begs the question – how will they set up?

I’ve got it as a 4-3-3, with Frimpong at the back, Wirtz behind Isak and Ekitike on the right – but it could well be a 4-2-3-1 or a 4-2-4, with Szboszlai at the back and Frimpong on the right.

Eintracht Frankfurt XI: Zetterer; Amenda, Koch, Theate; Kristensen, Gotze, Larsson, Brown; Doan, Bahoya, Knauff.

Liverpool XI: Mamardashvili; Frimpong, Konate, Van Dijk, Robertson; Jones, Szoboszlai, Wirtz; Ekitike, Isak, Gakpo.

Hugo Ekitike is back on the soil he knows all too well – does he start for Liverpool tonight?

With team news just around the corner, here’s everything we know so far:

Frankfurt are without Oscar Hojlund after the midfielder sustained a thigh injury during Sunday’s 2-2 draw with Freiburg. Jessic Ngankam and Nnamdi Collins are both injured and will not feature in the game.

Liverpool’s No.1 goalkeeper Alisson remains on the sidelines as he continues his recovery from injury meaning Giorgi Mamardashvili continues in goal. Wataru Endo is a doubt but may make the bench, while Ryan Gravenberch didn’t travel due to an ankle injury. Expect changes from the team that lost to Man Utd on Sunday with Hugo Ekitike in line to start.

Go back a year and Liverpool were in the middle of a run of eight straight victories, near the start of a spell of 15 victories and one draw in 16. Arne Slot’s every decision seemed to pay off. He was prospering by not buying. He proved ideally suited to Jurgen Klopp’s players.

Twelve months on, the struggle is to adjust to his own. Winning without spending back then, he is losing after paying record sums now. Slot has gone from eight consecutive victories to four defeats in a row. It is uncharted territory: for him personally, and for Liverpool in the decade since Klopp’s appointment.

Slot’s honeymoon period included a demolition of Manchester United. His worst run so far culminated in an Anfield loss to them. Liverpool can sense a rapid shift in fortunes. “We are coming from a season where everything was unbelievable,” noted Virgil van Dijk. Now this stretches credibility. At the least, they have offered belated vindication for Klopp: he long railed against the notion that the transfer market was the answer to everything. Now Liverpool have spent £450m and, from having a team notable for their clarity of thought, seem caught in confusion.

Read more from Richard Jolly:

“I think we’re at that stage now where Mo Salah shouldn’t be a guaranteed starter every week,” he told The Gary Neville Podcast. “I do think this is a real conundrum for the manager going forward.”

In the Sky Sports studio after Sunday’s loss to Man United he reiterated his view saying: “I don’t think Salah should be like a Virgil van Dijk where it’s like ‘first name on the teamsheet’.

“Liverpool have got two away games – in the Champions League at Frankfurt and then they go to Brentford. I don’t think Salah should start both of those games.

“He should always start at Anfield because Liverpool will be on top, around the edge of the box and more often than not he scores in those situations.

“But I do think in the away games and helping your full-back, I don’t think Salah should be starting every game right now, certainly away from home, with the form he’s in.”

“I had no clue that this is possible,” he said. “Nobody ever told me that it’s possible that we can spend like that.

“My last year at Liverpool, we obviously (had) the Adidas deal, the new stadium, all these kind of things – they earn more money. But never ever I could have asked for that amount of money, but that’s not a problem. In that time it was not there, no problem at all.”

Liverpool had become champions and Eintracht Frankfurt had qualified for the Champions League but thoughts soon shifted to what came next. Or who came next, anyway. Arne Slot spoke to Hugo Ekitike at the end of last season. The caller can’t have come as a surprise to the striker. Liverpool had been in contact with his camp since January. Liverpool were preparing for Darwin Nunez’s departure. Ekitike had seen his sidekick Omar Marmoush leave in the winter window. Frankfurt may have supplanted Borussia Dortmund as the Bundesliga’s experts in identifying, improving and profiting from talent. The guarantee is that they will sell, if the price is right.

Slot can be a persuasive salesman; or perhaps his club afforded him the best pitch. Manchester United made a late approach and Liverpool could enjoy taking one of their targets. Newcastle made a bid, before Liverpool swooped: their interpretation was that the Magpies only turned to Ekitike after missing out on Liam Delap and Joao Pedro, though Eddie Howe’s interest in the Frenchman dated back three years, to his first window in charge. Regardless, Ekitike preferred Liverpool. “This was the best choice,” he said three weeks ago. “The champions of England. They have great players and history. It just fitted for what I was looking for.” He joined in July for an initial £69m.

A first return to the Deutsche Bank Park could have had the makings of a triumphant affair. Ekitike scored four minutes into his Liverpool career. He struck in his first three games for the club; not since Daniel Sturridge had anyone done that for Liverpool. Blessed with pace, brimming with talent, he was an instant crowd favourite. And yet he may be back in Frankfurt as a bit-part player.

Richard Jolly writes ahead of Hugo Ekitike’s return to Frankfurt:

By the 89th minute, powerless in the face of a second-half blitz which had completely overpowered his team, Diego Simeone finally sat down. Briefly, it should be said. Trudging back five yards from the touchline to the dugout, eyes watering, the bombastic Atletico Madrid boss muttered all sorts of incomprehensible Spanish, drank a sip of water and quickly leapt back up, wiping his face in disbelief. He never leans back on his seat.

This is not how it began in the match against Arsenal on Tuesday night. Nor was it how it ended the previous time Simeone was on English shores; last month, after conceding a last-minute deciding goal at Anfield, Simeone confronted a group of goading Liverpool fans and had to be hauled back by security staff. Inevitably, he was sent off and received a one-game touchline ban in the Champions League.

Kieran Jackson analyses Diego Simeone in Atletico’s 4-0 defeat at Arsenal: