Liverpool will travel to Stadium of Light this Wednesday to face Sunderland for their final clash for 2015. According to Jurgen Klopp, the Kops are motivated of closing this year with a victory, after the hard-earned one against Leicester City on the Boxing day. Christian Benteke ended the 4 match run without a win with his only goal against the Premier League leaders, Leicester City.

Sunderland comes after a dreadful match against Manchester City last week and a painful season, as they’ve collected only 12 points on the first 18 weeks. They have not managed to scored any points in their last 4 matches, but they’ve managed to score and Liverpool have managed to keep only 1 clean sheet [ against Leicester last week]

Sunderland’s manager,Sam Allardyce stated that the aim for the next match are 3 points and also admits that Liverpool are a beatable team. The thing that worries Allardyce most are the injuries, as Sunderland will miss Matthews and Kaboul at the back and Larsson on the midfield.

“We are struggling as a team, in defending terms. We are not getting in peoples’ faces, we are not closing the opposition down well enough. It’s definitely a factor that’s been brought to light particularly in the last two games, against Chelsea and against Manchester City, and we must get better at it if we are to achieve and points on the board – we have to remember that the out of possession side is equally important as (that which is) in possession. So we have to get better at closing the opposition out and making life more difficult for them.”

Jurgen Klopp managed to get his first win against Leicester, ending a bad run of 4 games without winning. After the Boxing day, Klopp admitted that his team must show more motivation and movement, especially Christian Benteke, who should be more involved according to the former Borussia Dortmund manager.

“After Watford it was clear what we had to. Really clear because we had these problems in the games against West Brom, Crystal Palace, Watford. And we had these problems not against Leicester, because we reacted on this. That’s what’s realy good and what we were really satisfied with. And now we have to play against Sunderland and we don’t want to go there and show how football should be. We go there and we want to win. That’s the only reason why we travel there and that’s what we have to show and there’s no reason to doubt in the mentality of the team, that they maybe think ‘OK It’s only Sunderland’ or think like this. We are not, how I know them, nobody in the team is like this. We want to improve our situation. We want to develop, get more points in these very very important moments in the league. End of December, January, so many points in January and of December it’s unbelievable and you should take each you can.”

Liverpool are expected to start with the same line up they’ve used against Leicester City, as Klopp was pleased with his team performance. As mentioned, He’s expected much from Benteke, since the Belgian striker has already proved in Premier League to be an important player for a team, a typical finished and strong striker.

The Reds does not have much news on the infirmary , as the same names of Gomez, Ings, Skrtel or Sturridge are present.

Possible Line-Ups

Sunderland: Pantilimon, Jones, Coates, O’Shea, Van Aanholt, M’Vila, Cattermole, Rodwell, Johnson, Defoe and Borini

Liverpool: Mignolet, Clyne, Lovren, Sakho, Moreno, Can, Henderson, Firmino, Coutinho, Lallana and Benteke

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