Huge motivation difference here.

Royale Union, who is dominating the Jupiler Pro League and last season reached the ¼ finals in the Europa League, is in a difficult situation: three points below Toulouse, which means that they need a victory in order to have chances to qualify. They could even lose their Conference League position (3rd) as they have only 2 points advantage with bottom LASK. Furthermore, they have lost the goal average with LASK, so if LASK wins against Toulouse and Royale Union doesn't win against Liverpool, LASK will be third in the table.

So Royle Union need to win here for two reasons: to assure their third position in case LASK wins, to try to reach the second position in case Toulouse lose.

They are in good form, winning 13 of the last 17 games and sitting at the top of the league with a six-point gap between themselves and second-placed Anderlecht. Last season they already showed how competitive they are, beating strong teams such as Union Berlin or achieving a draw 1:1 in the first game at home against Bayer Leverkusen in ¼ finals.

On the other hand, Liverpool is the main reason for this pick. Their Europa League’s fate is sealed, so they will be leaders regardless of the results. That’s why coach Klopp has decided to make a very young and inexperienced squad for this fixture, leaving out the main players to rest.

There were some younger faces in training on Wednesday as the Reds prepared for their trip to Belgium.

Tom Hill, James McConnell, Calum Scanlon, Kaide Gordon and Lewis Koumas all joined the senior squad at Kirkby to get ready for the dead rubber, and all of them will be hoping to feature on a European stage for Liverpool this week.

There is little Jurgen Klopp to lose in giving them the opportunity to showcase their talents, and perhaps a lot to be gained down the line from the experience. That should see as many as six youngsters come into realistic contention to start, including another for Jarell Quansah. Conor Bradley and Luke Chambers could both join him in defence, while there is a chance James McConnell makes his full debut at the base of the midfield with Alexis Mac Allister injured. Ben Doak is almost certain to start, but there may also be plans for Kaide Gordon to pick up minutes in a low-stakes tie.

All six of those players are already registered for the Europa League, five through List B, which also includes a number of other youngsters.

Important players such as Alisson, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk and Mo Salah have not traveled to Belgium as part of the 23-man squad. And we can anticipate even more senior players to be rested.

Klopp took part in a live Q&A session at Anfield on Monday night, during which he revealed had “no clue” how the side will look against Union SG but that we can certainly expect tweaks.

So we’ll see a very young and experienced Liverpool, with the few senior players who’ll play totally unmotivated, whilst hosts will play at home (although they are using a different stadium in the European competitions) and strongly motivated to win and quality either to Europa League’s next round or Conference League, keeping their third position.

该文章通过有道机器翻译，仅供参考:

这是巨大的动机差异。

皇家联盟在朱比勒职业联赛中占据统治地位，上赛季在欧联杯中杀入1 / 4决赛，目前处境艰难:落后图卢兹3分，这意味着他们需要一场胜利才能获得出线机会。他们甚至可能失去联盟的位置(第3)，因为他们在倒数第一的LASK只领先2分。此外，他们已经失去了LASK的场均进球，所以如果LASK赢了图卢兹，皇家联盟不赢利物浦，LASK将排在积分榜第三位。

所以罗伊尔联盟需要在这里获胜有两个原因:一是确保他们的第三名，如果LASK赢了，如果图卢兹输了，他们要努力达到第二名。

他们的状态很好，在过去的17场比赛中赢了13场，与排名第二的安德莱赫特之间有6分的差距，位居联赛榜首。上个赛季，他们已经展示了自己的竞争力，击败了柏林联盟这样的强队，在1 / 4决赛中主场与勒沃库森的第一场比赛中1:1战平。

另一方面，利物浦是这次选秀的主要原因。他们的欧联杯命运已定，所以无论结果如何，他们都将是领头羊。这就是为什么教练克洛普决定在这场比赛中组建一支非常年轻和缺乏经验的球队，让主要球员休息。

在周三的训练中，红军为比利时之行做了准备。

汤姆·希尔、詹姆斯·麦康奈尔、卡勒姆·斯坎伦、凯德·戈登和刘易斯·库马斯都加入了柯克比的成年队，为比赛做准备，他们都希望在本周的欧洲赛场上为利物浦效力。

克洛普给了他们展示才华的机会，这对他们来说没什么损失，也许从这次经历中可以得到很多东西。这将会有多达六名年轻球员进入首发竞争，其中包括贾雷尔·昆萨。康纳·布拉德利和卢克·钱伯斯都有可能加入他的后防线，而詹姆斯·麦康奈尔也有可能在阿利斯特受伤的情况下完成他的中场首秀。本·多克几乎肯定会首发，但凯德·戈登也有可能在一场低风险的比赛中获得上场时间。

这六名球员都已经注册参加了欧联杯，其中五名来自B名单，其中还包括一些其他的年轻人。

像阿利松、阿诺德、范迪克和萨拉赫这样的重要球员都没有进入23人大名单。我们可以预见更多的老球员将会休息。

克洛普参加了周一晚上在安菲尔德的现场问答环节，在此期间，他透露“不知道”球队在对阵曼联的比赛中会是什么样子，但我们可以肯定会有所调整。

所以我们将看到一个非常年轻和经验丰富的利物浦，有一些老球员将完全没有动力，而东道主将在主场比赛(尽管他们在欧洲比赛中使用不同的球场)，并有强烈的动力赢得并晋级下一轮欧联杯或分区联赛，保持他们的第三名。

12月15日圣吉联合 VS 利物浦比赛分析直播