By arlington Today I decided to tackle predicting lineups for that Girona vs Liverpool friendly since everyone keeps asking about it. Grabbed my lukewarm coffee and opened up five different sports sites on my browser. Totally forgot how messy preseason lineup predictions are.
Step 1: The Injury Circus
Started scratching my head over Liverpool’s injury reports. Szoboszlai? Still recovering. Salah? Might get minutes. Konaté? Who knows! Checked four sources and got three different answers. Some Nigerian fan site had Salah starting while a Liverpool blog swore he’s on extended break. Utter chaos.
Step 2: Coach Whisperer Fail
Tried playing mind reader with Klopp and Michel. Klopp always rotates like crazy in friendlies – threw in that 16-year-old academy kid last time. Michel at Girona? Total wildcard. Remembered he benched their top scorer in a friendly last summer “just because”. Wrote down three possible Liverpool formations before giving up.
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Key headaches:
- Liverpool’s leaked training pics showed Bajcetic at CB? Madness.
- Girona’s new Ukrainian signing – zero info if he’s even eligible.
- That rumored Liverpool trialist – no name, just “Brazilian winger”. Useless.
Step 3: Copy-Paste Detective
Checked last year’s friendlies. Klopp used entirely different XI in both halves against Bayern. Pointless reference. Saw Twitter buzz about Tsimikas starting after his Instagram story showed him training yesterday. So now I’m social media stalking? Ridiculous.
Final XI Gamble
Slammed my coffee cup and took guesses:
Liverpool (second half team): Kelleher – Bradley, Gomez, Quansah, Scanlon – Elliott, Clark, McConnell – Doak, Gakpo, Gordon
Girona (total shot in dark): Carlos – Arnau, Dovbyk, Blind, Gutierrez – Herrera, Garcia – Couto, Tsygankov, Torre – Stuani
Ended up with Liverpool’s lineup looking like their U23 team plus Gakpo. For Girona? Literally threw darts at their squad list. Who knows if Dovbyk can even play midfield. Some stats nerd will probably say my prediction’s trash. Whatever.
Friendly lineups are like weather forecasts – mostly wrong but everyone pretends they’re science. Might as well have flipped coins. Already seeing forum comments like “OP is clueless about Klopp’s rotations”. Yeah no kidding. This “prediction” feels like arranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Posting it anyway for the clicks.