Liverpool will be looking for a third Premier League win in a row when they host bottom-of-the-league Wolves at Anfield on Saturday.

Arne Slot’s team come into the back of this game, having beaten Brighton and Tottenham in their last two games, and a feeling that they might have breathed some life back into what had been a wretched season until then.

Speaking of wretched, Wolves are rock bottom, with two points in 17 games so far. They have lost ten league games in-a-row. In most of those games, they haven’t really threatened to even take a point or compete with their oppositions. They have shown glimpses, like in their last-gasp defeat at Arsenal, but largely, it has been a season of misery for Wolves fans.

Liverpool have a host of injuries and absences to deal with, so that might be something for Wolves to take heart from in their quest for a first league win of the season.

Here is everything you need to know ahead of Saturday’s game.

How to watch:

The match will be not be broadcast in the UK, but will be shown on NBC Sports in the U.S., JioHotstar in India and Stan Sport in Australia. You can also follow ESPN’s live updates.

Key Details:

Kick-off time: Saturday, Dec. 27 at 3 p.m. GMT (11 a.m. ET; 8:30 p.m. IST and 1 a.m. AEST, Sunday)

Venue: Anfield, Liverpool

Referee: Simon Hooper

VAR: Michael Salisbury

Injury and Team News:

Liverpool:

Mohamed Salah, F: AFCON, OUT
Dominik Szoboszlai, M: suspended, OUT
Cody Gakpo, F: knock, DOUBT
Alexander Isak, F: ankle, OUT, est. return unknown
Wataru Endo, M: knock, OUT, est. return early Jan.
Joe Gomez, D: hamstring, OUT, est. return early Jan.
Conor Bradley, D: knock, DOUBT
Ibrahima Konaté, D: knock, DOUBT

Wolves:

Emmanuel Agbadou, D: AFCON, OUT
Tawanda Chirewa, F: AFCON, OUT
Daniel Bentley, G: ankle, OUT, est. return mid-Jan.
Hugo Bueno, D: strain, DOUBT
Toti Gomes, D: hamstring, DOUBT
Jean-Ricner Bellegarde, M: hamstring, OUT, est.return late Jan.
Marshall Munetsi, M: calf, OUT, est. return mid-Jan.
Rodrigo Gomes, D: groin, OUT, est. return early Feb.

Talking Points:

How will Liverpool deal with their injury crisis?

Liverpool are down to their bare bones in terms of player availability. Alexander Isak has had surgery on his ankle injury, Joe Gomez and Wataru Endo are out injured, Conor Bradley, Ibrahima Konate, and Cody Gakpo are doubtful, while Dominik Szoboszlai is suspended, and of course, Mohamed Salah is away at the Africa Cup of Nations. .

If Bradley, Konate and Gakpo don’t make it through for the game, Liverpool could enter with just 11 fit senior players, and just one senior centre-back available. It could mean starts for Jeremie Frimpong and Federico Chiesa, with Andy Robertson perhaps filling in at centre-back.

Arne Slot said before the game that there’s a chance for the likes of Bradley and Gakpo to eventually be available, which would ease some of the concerns that Liverpool have. But a Wolves side with two points in the league this season will see an opportunity, with so much disruption in the Liverpool ranks.

Wolves’ best opportunity is to make Liverpool panic with set-pieces

All season, Liverpool have been vulnerable when defending set-pieces. Last weekend against Spurs, despite having a man advantage, Liverpool panicked in the last few minutes of the game, and the core reason was them not being able to defend high balls into the box. With Konate a doubt, having not trained for a couple of days, then there’s even less height in the Liverpool defence to be able to deal with high balls.

Liverpool have conceded 11 goals off set-pieces in the league this season and Slot has taken note of that, coupled with their poor record from their own set-pieces.

“I know the importance of it, it gets more and more, and that’s why we are so annoyed by our current record,” Slot told his pre-match press conference.

For Wolves, their height — with the likes of Jorgen Strand Larsen, Tolu Arokodare and Ladislav Krejcí — should form the core of their strategy as they set about trying to get their first win of the season, and take advantage of what has been an iffy Liverpool record at Anfield this season.

Florian Wirtz has finally found some rhythm

After his big money move from Germany in the summer, Florian Wirtz has struggled to impose himself on the Premier League, particularly in the initial months. However, now, he’s imposing himself on pretty much every game he’s playing. In the game against Spurs, it was Wirtz who unlocked the door for Liverpool with his pass for Alexander Isak’s opening goal.

With Slot’s change in system, Wirtz is mostly finding himself in the half spaces on the inside-left channel that he has so enjoyed playing in — it’s where a bulk of his best performances for Leverkusen came from.

Now, Wirtz has settled into the role, and has built relationships with those around him. Milos Kerkez, particularly, has been a lot more influential because Wirtz has combined excellently with him. The likes of Curtis Jones and Hugo Ekitike are also getting better at understanding where they need to be and what they need to do in terms of their runs and passing in and around Wirtz.

That first Liverpool goal still remains elusive for Wirtz, but perhaps a home game against the league’s bottom team might be a good opportunity to get that off his shoulders.

Wolves have an issue up front

Jorgen Strand Larsen, along with Matheus Cunha, was an integral part of why Wolves managed to stay up last season. However, with Cunha gone to Manchester United, Strand Larsen has struggled to reach the heights that he did last season. He’s scored only one goal in 15 league games this season. Last weekend, he missed a penalty against Brentford, when he saw a tame effort easily saved by Caoimhín Kelleher.

Tolu Arokadare, their substitute striker has found the going fairly difficult as well. However, he scored against Arsenal a couple of weeks ago. Could that be the boost in confidence he needed? Is it time for Rob Edwards to finally look past Strand Larsen?

Liverpool are winning, but they are not playing well

At some point, the latter will catch up with the former. Their next two games, against Wolves and Leeds at Anfield, are great opportunities to improve their performance levels to something that might be more sustainable in the long-term. However, the disruptions caused by their current injury crisis will come in the way of trying to build those performance levels.

Against Tottenham, Liverpool conceded a tad more xG than they created, despite playing a bulk of that game with a man more. They were dominant against Brighton, but still conceded 1.69 xG, while they conceded 1.79 xG to Leeds before that. Slot’s reasoning for how he has set up the team recently has been that he has wanted to make them more solid and hard to beat. While they’ve won their last three games in all competitions — including one in the Champions League against Inter — Liverpool have been far from convincing at either end of the field.

However, with Wolves, Leeds and Fulham to follow in their next three games, if Liverpool can put the points on the board to take them into the top four, that gives them a platform and confidence to build on during the second half of the season.