With a fixture every week recently Steven Gerrard has been able to maintain a greater consistency in his team selection, rather than having to make the 4-5 changes that made guessing the line-up a nightmare earlier in the season.
The pre-match press conference for the short trip to Motherwell brought some brighter news after the gaffer revealed that Ryan Jack is available for selection but might have to wait until mid-week to return to competitive action and that Kemar Roofe is also set to return to full training.
With Roofe still on the sidelines, and the performance of the front three against Aberdeen, there is only really one question in terms of team selection – Filip Helander or Leon Balogun to partner Connor Goldson in the heart of defence?
Balogun appears to have edged his way into the starting XI – with Gerrard keen to tie him down for another season – but it will be interesting to see if he plays today with Hibernian on the horizon in mid-week and the Europa League just around the corner, it may be that we see a return of the rotation between the two to keep them fresh.
This is the team I’d go with as Gerrard looks to maintain our remarkable start to the season:
Graham Alexander has recently replaced Stephen Robinson as Motherwell boss and has already shown a greater attacking intent though his full-backs and trusting his centre-halves to play out from the back more – we could get joy with a high press if they continue to play in this manner, they certainly can’t be as defensive as the 5-5-0 formation in the recent 3-1 win at Ibrox, where Cedric Itten was the game changer.
Result prediction
Win
Draw
Loss
If the game is tight again, I’d expect the big Swiss international to come on but hopefully he will be getting time on the park when the result is already beyond doubt, it would be the perfect way to round off what has been a very entertaining week for Gers fans.