LIVERPOOL VS. BRIGHTON & HOVE ALBION

| Saturday, December 13th |
Premier League | Anfield
3PM GMT/10AM EST

Fabian Hürzeler is under some pressure, with Brighton’s form a bit inexplicable this season: wins against Chelsea and Manchester City matched with draws with West Ham United, Wolves, Fulham, and Tottenham. Brighton look less imaginative than they have in recent seasons, and seem to struggle at times in beating teams that they should, and have tended lately to drop points when faced with a challenge. Though the Seagulls are far from being relegation candidates, there’s a feeling in some quarters of stagnation: questions have been asked about how content Brighton fans will be to discover and sell on promising talent while winning nothing themselves.

To a large extent, though, this is outside noise. Attendance figures at their ground have remained stable, and while they’re on level points with Liverpool the Seagulls have arrived at 23 points with more draws and fewer losses.

Hürzeler does have some injury concerns, as Stefanos Tzimas picked up an ACL injury that will see him out for the season, while Solly March remains unavailable as he returns to full fitness. It’s not all bad news for the manager, however, as Karou Mitoma, James Milner, and Tom Watson are available this weekend — Mitoma had been dealing with some form of pain since September, so his return here is notable (and bad news for Liverpool, as the Japanese international poses a major threat).

The frightening thing here is that Brighton have actually scored quite a lot this season, which is not good news for Liverpool’s leaky defense. Brighton have scored 25 goals this season (from an xG of 23.5 — sustainable numbers), which is equal to Chelsea, and puts them joint-fourth on the Premier League scoring table, behind Manchester United (26), Arsenal (28) and Manchester City (35). It’s worth noting that Liverpool’s leaky defense is not just new this season: in the calendar year of 2025, Liverpool have conceded 48 goals in 35 Premier League games. These are bad numbers, even if there is the blip post-title win. Per Opta, the Reds have only conceded 50+ Premier League goals in two previous years: 2012 (51) and 2014 (52) — not calendar years you want to replicate.

Yankuba Minteh is the main threat in this Brighton side, able to create for teammates and sometimes score himself — and having Danny Welbeck in decent, clinical form has helped. Welbeck, their top scorer in the league, has seven goals in his 11 starts and 15 total appearances this season. The next name on that list is Jan Paul van Hecke with three; though Brighton have scored often this season, they share the spoils and have 14 different Premier League goalscorers this season (only two being penalties, and one of those coming from ex-Red James Milner). Van Hecke is the other major threat, though: his line-breaking passes have been key to Brighton’s attack this season, and they’re something the Reds will need to be awake to if they want three points on Saturday. Indeed, he’s made 217 line-breaking passes this season, which Opta says is more than any other player, and that 110 of those have broken the opponent’s attacking line is also a league best.

They have been poor away from home this season, winning just twice and picking up three of their four losses. They’re also where they are in the table because they also concede quite a bit: they’ve shipped 21 (from xGA of 19.3). This is obviously better news, though they’ve kept clean sheets in their last two away games, something of an impressive feat when the teams in question are Nottingham Forest (who, as Liverpool knows, are capable of a result) and Crystal Palace (ditto), both challenging places to go.

They’re coming into this match off the back of a defeat to Aston Villa at the beginning of the month and a draw to West Ham United midweek — and they had to score late in stoppage time against West Ham to take home the point. They need a win almost as much as Liverpool do.

Predicted Liverpool Lineup (4-3-3)

Alisson; Bradley, Konaté, Van Dijk, Robertson; Gravenberch, Szoboszlai, Mac Allister; Ekitiké, Wirtz, Salah

Liverpool did lose their last match against Brighton in May 2025, but this was notably after the Reds were confirmed as Champions — and this was the only loss against Brighton in eight Premier League home games (W5 D2). This is something of a different animal, though: Liverpool have just 23 points, one fewer point than goals conceded — and the worst start by reigning champions after Leicester’s in 2016/17, and that’s not a trajectory we want to echo. That said, the last four in all competitions have suggested a mixed-but-upwards trajectory (on the pitch at least), and despite continued and exhausting disappointment the Reds have looked a bit better than their abysmal results suggest.

Arne Slot’s team selection is of course haunted by the off-pitch drama with Mohamed Salah, who leaves next week for AFCON. The Egyptian’s potential inclusion is perhaps bolstered for practical reasons on Saturday, however: Federico Chiesa is out with illness, and mainstay Cody Gakpo is an injury doubt. Gakpo divides opinion; while his output and influence has been clear when it comes to goals and assists this season, many are tired of watching him cut in right again and again, or be done for pace down the wing. For his part, Salah has 10 goals in 16 league appearances versus Brighton, which makes them his sixth-favorite league opponents (incidentally, Manchester United are his fave, conceding 13 goals to the Egyptian in the Premier League).

Slot will want to maintain momentum, but with Gakpo potentially unavailable and Alexander Isak looking a bit uneven thus far, I wonder if Slot might try a front three of Hugo Ekitiké, Florian Wirtz, and Mohamed Salah (which would allow for the more stable midfield three of Ryan Gravenberch, Dominik Szoboszlai, and either Curtis Jones or Alexis Mac Allister). While this is a teamsheet that I would certainly be interested in seeing, a lot of uncertainty remains with fitness and off-pitch drama, making this a bit harder to predict. Slot may well keep Salah off, fielding both Szoboszlai and Jones.

Similarly, there’s a level of uncertainty when it comes to the fullbacks, with the Conor Bradley/Joe Gomez and Andy Robertson/Miloš Kerkez coin-flips reliant on fitness and approach. These decisions are of course less dramatic than those further up the pitch.

The Managers Have Their Say

Arne Slot: “Apart from being unbeaten, I think we’ve shown we have been a team in the last four games that were indeed difficult to beat, that it was difficult to create chances against us. The team worked really hard, put a lot of effort in. [We have] been, again, a bit unlucky in the results but showed great resilience. Four games in 10 days with not a lot of players available is, I think, a compliment to the players that were available, how they managed to get, first of all, some results and, second of all, the work-rate they’ve put in..”

Fabian Hürzeler: “We try to go for this challenge, to be honest, we don’t have any idea how Liverpool will play with which players that will face us, which formation. It’s about us, focusing on our principles, our style of play. We go there, we know no matter which situation Liverpool is it will be a big challenge, so we try to face it and we try to win this game.”

Referee: Craig Pawson Assistants: Lee Betts, Mat Wilkes Fourth Official: Tom Nield VAR: Darren England Assistant VAR: Adrian Holmes

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