Saturday, 22 December 2012

Premier League - Matchpack: Liverpool v Fulham - Yahoo! Eurosport UK

TEAM NEWS

Defender Jose Enrique returned to training this week after a hamstring injury and comes back into contention for the visit of Fulham. Midfielder Nuri Sahin is fit after surgery on a broken nose but winger Oussama Assaidi is out with a knee problem. Manager Brendan Rodgers has spoken about the need to rest forward Raheem Sterling and if he does Suso would be his likely replacement.

Fulham boss Martin Jol has been forced to recall goalkeeper David Stockdale from his loan spell at Hull ahead of his side's trip to Liverpool. Third-choice goalkeeper Neil Etheridge has been ruled out with a leg injury and Stockdale will now provide cover to Mark Schwarzer. Midfielder Steve Sidwell is banned while Mahamadou Diarra (knee) and Bryan Ruiz (hamstring) are missing, although full-back Sascha Riether has recovered from a knee problem suffered last weekend.

MANAGER QUOTES

Brendan Rodgers: . "Our learning from it (the Villa defeat) was that no game is easy in this division. The comfort with which we were playing and the opportunities we created in the first 25 minutes would maybe have made you thought we were going to get the result - it's very easily done. It is great learning that you can't afford to (think like that), you have to keep pushing. The reaction of the players has been first class - their willingness to put it right and get three points this weekend is very high and I've seen that in training."

Martin Jol: "It is about winning games so if we can pull a few games together and have a few wins we will be fine again - but we need to come up with solutions and results. It is a constant worry, that is why a lot of managers in the Premier League will tell you they need 40 points as soon as possible. There are so many points to gain and so many games to play, I would be worried if we were in the bottom three but now my first worry is the (injured) players and getting them back. We have got a problem in midfield, everyone can see that. The only one who is there is Chris Baird and he is a defender, we have trained this week and tried to do a certain shape with certain players and we still have the players to do a job."

MATCH FACTS

Martin Jol is unbeaten in his last three encounters with Liverpool as a Premier League manager (W2 D1), including two 1-0 wins over them with Fulham last season.

Fulham have won only one of their 11 Premier League trips to Anfield (L6 D4), but this victory came in their last visit there in May.

The Whites have scored just three goals in their 11 Premier League trips to Anfield.

Of the 24 goalkeepers to have made at least 20 saves in the Premier League this season, Liverpool 'keeper Pepe Reina has the lowest saves to shots ratio (59.6%).

Luis Suarez has averaged a shot at goal every 20 minutes in the Premier League this season; more frequently than any other player.

Mark Clattenburg has handed out more cards per game on average than any other Premier League referee this season (4.6).

Clattenburg also have the lowest fouls per card average in the PL this term (5.5).

Fulham have hit the target with 53% of their shots this season in the Premier League; a higher proportion than any other side.

Liverpool have the lowest shooting accuracy in the Premier League this term (38%).

14 of the 17 games involving Fulham this season have gone over 2.5 goals.

MATCH ODDS

Liverpool 4/7, Fulham 6/1, Draw 5/2

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