3) Naby Keita or Jordan Henderson?
PSG could be without both Marco Verratti and Adrien Rabiot tonight, giving Liverpool a real opportunity to find holes in the French giants’ midfield.
That could, in theory, be dream territory for the attack-minded Naby Keita to exploit – and it is big games like this the Guinea international was presumably brought to the club for.
However, given the tendency to bring the full-backs into attack, Liverpool might opt for more defensive cover from central midfield, which maybe rules Keita out, meaning more of a role for the defensive-minded Jordan Henderson, or even Fabinho if Klopp fancies the highly risky strategy of handing the Brazilian his debut tonight.
Henderson does his job in front of the defence well and keeps things simple and tidy in possession. That can sometimes haunt Liverpool against better sides as they’ve lacked the craft to break down top teams. Tonight Klopp has the difficult challenge of deciding which is the bigger priority for his team.
4) Can they maintain their high-energy approach?
In comparison to Liverpool, PSG have a much easier time of things domestically and, absent players aside, will probably go into tonight’s game in better shape than the Reds.
The Ligue 1 champions have enjoyed mostly comfortably wins against opponents like Caen, Guingamp, Angers, Nimes and Saint-Etienne before tonight – scoring 17 goals in five league games so far this season.
Liverpool, meanwhile, have had to grind out wins against Tottenham and Leicester City recently, and even had to scrape past Crystal Palace and Brighton.
The Premier League is far more demanding than the French top flight, and that is precisely the kind of thing that can come into play even this early on in the season with the fixtures coming thick and fast at the weekends and then midweek.
Liverpool also lack the same depth in their squad that PSG enjoy, so are relying on many of the same tired players domestically and in Europe.
Tonight they’ll clearly have to hope the super-human energy levels of the likes of James Milner can come through for them.
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