Stoke City v Liverpool: Team news, predictions & odds

The game kicks off at 1500 GMT at the bet365 Stadium.

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Stoke City v Liverpool: Team news 

Xherdan Shaqiri could return to the Stoke starting line-up for the first time since January when the Potters face Liverpool on Saturday.

Shaqiri has been battling calf problems but boss Mark Hughes hopes his return will give him a fully-fit squad to choose from against Jurgen Klopp's men.

Jonathan Walters should return after missing the midweek loss at Burnley due to concussion, while Marc Muniesa and Mame Diouf have recovered from minor knee complaints.

Liverpool playmaker Philippe Coutinho is a major doubt for the trip to Stoke because of illness.

The Brazil international will be given as long as possible to prove his fitness but has not trained for the last two days.

Forward Sadio Mane is set for an operation on a knee injury which has ended his season but centre-back Joel Matip should return to the starting line-up after a back problem reduced him to the role of substitute in midweek.

Teams

Stoke (from): Grant, Given, Bardsley, Shawcross, Pieters, Martins Indi, Muniesa, Cameron, Whelan, Adam, Imbula, Shaqiri, Allen, Afellay, Arnautovic, Sobhi, Walters, Crouch, Berahino, Diouf, Bony.

Liverpool (from): Mignolet, Clyne, Lovren, Matip, Milner, Lucas, Can, Wijnaldum, Firmino, Origi, Woodburn, Karius, Klavan, Gomez, Alexander-Arnold, Moreno, Grujic, Stewart, Sturridge, Wilson. 

Stoke City v Liverpool: Manager quotes  

Mark Hughes (Stoke City)

On the form of Giannelli Imbula: "It's fair to say he has struggled this year in terms of having an impact and that's unfortunate. But any decision on any player will not be made during the season.

"He had a bright start when he first came in, but it's about a consistent level of performance and he has struggled to maintain that to be honest.

"We feel there is more to come from him from a football point of view and we will try and bring that out of him.

"I would really have liked him to have grabbed his opportunity to stay in the team and that hasn't happened. But he has still got time between now and the end of the season to get more games and hopefully impress."

On looking to bounce back to winning ways: "With the quality of opposition that we've been up against in recent weeks, you could say arguably that this run of fixtures is the most difficult we've had this season.

"But apart from against Leicester I think we've put decent enough performances in and that continued against Burnley where we were disappointed because I thought we were the better team on the night."

Jurgen Klopp (Liverpool)

On Sadio Mane: "I am pretty sure Sadio will need surgery but I am not 100 per cent sure when it will happen, but then it is clear 'season over'.

"That is what I half-expected when I saw him after the game. I felt he was lucky that not more happened but we are close enough to the end of the season that it will be pretty much impossible to play again this season.

"He will get a longer break and will be ready for next season. That is the only good news." 

On Philippe Coutinho: "Phil is still ill. He was not at Melwood yesterday and he will not be here today.

"He feels much better but we will have to see if we can bring him tomorrow.

"Stoke is not too far away so we will give him all the time he needs." 

On injury problems: "I would love to replace a player with exactly the same quality, maybe his twin.

"But having too many players is not good for a squad because you kill development.

"In this moment we have not enough experienced players so we have to replace them with youth and less-experienced boys.

"I don't think we have a lot (of injuries) because of intensity. Yes it has been intense but intensity is nothing to do with Hendo's injury, Adam's injury (on international duty) was a little bit about this but we couldn't influence this, Phil's injury against Sunderland was a challenge, Sadio was the same.

"We learn from all these things but we cannot use this in this moment.

"We have to only think about the things we can influence now and not what we will do about it in the future." 

On the 2-2 draw against Bournemouth: "Probably (if it was) Chelsea, for example, the opponent would not have the ball three times in the last 20 minutes I think.

"Yes, we don't have this experience. Probably you need things like last night to get more experience than this, even though (the result) was not that good.

"On the other hand, we've probably still scored the most goals in the Premier League so far (66 - five more than Arsenal), so it's part of the game that we try to create moments all the time.

"We have to get more experience in this, for sure." 

Stoke City v Liverpool: Our prediction 

Our David John writes... A couple of pretty turgid outcomes for Stoke as defeats to nil against Leicester and Burnley leaves them on a three-game losing streak and in need of a jolt of some description to get going in a positive direction.

It would take an almighty fall from grace if they somehow managed to get sucked into some sort of relegation predicament but a bit of a malaise has descended over the Potteries with not a great deal left to play for.

They were better against Burnley but a couple of half-hearted finishes when through on goal from the usually excellent Marko Arnautovic summed things up while Charlie Adam’s wonderful new corner-taking technique even brought a rueful smile to the face of Mark Hughes.

Recent history seems to suggest Stoke will be up for facing one of the big guns again though considering their excellent 0-0 draw at Manchester City last month and battling effort in defeat against Chelsea.

A return home could be a catalyst for an upturn in their fortunes with just that Chelsea defeat the only reverse in five recent starts at the Bet365 Stadium but the visitors will be equally keen to press on for a Champions League berth at worst as they sit five points behind second-placed Spurs.

They even edged a little further ahead of Manchester City despite squandering another couple of points at home to Bournemouth in midweek and Sadio Mane’s likely absence for the rest of the season throws up a conundrum – they have yet to win a game without him. 

The Reds met Stoke at Anfield at about the same time last season and won 4-1 (for a second successive occasion) which kicked off a dreary crawl to the season’s finishing line and yielded just one more victory for Hughes and his men.

Recreating a similar scenario would not be at the top of the manager’s wish list but the home side really do need to pull their socks up – they could be I won’t be paying to find out.

Prediction: Stoke 1-1 Liverpool   

Stoke City v Liverpool: Opta facts 

Stoke have lost six of their last seven Premier League games against Liverpool, but did win the other clash, 6-1 at home in May 2015. 

Liverpool have won two of their last three trips to the bet365 Stadium, this after failing to win any of their first five Premier League games there (D2 L3). 

The Reds have won 4-1 in Jurgen Klopp’s two previous Premier League games against Stoke. The last manager to see his side net 4+ goals in his first three games against an opponent was Manuel Pellegrini (Manchester City v Tottenham). 

Jonathan Walters has scored six times against Liverpool in the Premier League, his favourite opponent to score against. 

Liverpool are winless in five Premier League games on the road (D3 L2); they’ve not gone six without a win since January 2011. 

The Reds have kept just six clean sheets in Jurgen Klopp’s 30 Premier League away games so far; the same total they’d recorded in Brendan Rodgers’ last 12 away matches with the club.  

Stoke have lost just once in their last nine Premier League games on home soil (W4 D4), although it came last time out versus Chelsea on March 18.  

The Potters have won 23 points from their first 15 home games of a Premier League season for the third consecutive campaign.   

Liverpool have won just half of their 16 Premier League games against sides currently in the bottom 10 positions in the table (W8 D3 L5) this season. 

The Reds have already scored more Premier League goals in 2016-17 (66) than they did last season (63) and in 2014-15 (52). 2013-14 saw them hit their record 101 goals in a Premier League campaign. 

Liverpool games have seen a league-high 105 goals scored in them this season in the Premier League.  

Stoke City v Liverpool: Sky Bet odds

Liverpool are marginally odds-on with Sky Bet at 17/20 to secure the win, with Stoke 3/1 outsiders while the draw is priced at 13/5. Jurgen Klopp’s men were cut to 5/2 to miss out on a top-four finish after failing to beat Bournemouth, while their title chances have long been dismissed at 500/1. Roberto Firmino heads the first goalscorer betting at 4/1 closely followed by Divock Origi (9/2), while the market is wide open on the hosts’ side, with Peter Crouch, Marko Arnautovic and Saido Berahino all 8/1 chances.     

Sky Bet's Stoke City v Liverpool odds!

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