Wednesday 6 April 2016 14:39, UK
Liverpool legend Phil Thompson believes Jurgen Klopp faces a tough decision over whether to select Mamadou Sakho for Thursday's trip to Borussia Dortmund.
The Reds travel to the Westfalenstadion for their Europa League quarter-final first-leg, with their defence set for a difficult test against the competition's favourites.
Klopp's men have failed to keep a clean sheet or win any of their last three games, with Sakho facing criticism for his performance in Saturday's 1-1 draw with Tottenham.
The French centre-back did not make a single tackle and won just 40 per cent of his duels according to Opta, although alternative option Martin Skrtel did not fare much better in his last appearance, coming off the bench at half-time with his side leading 2-0 in a 3-2 defeat to Southampton.
Thommo told Sky Sports: "I'm not really sure what Sakho was doing in the first half against Spurs and he was extremely lucky to go unpunished, which you can't expect to be the case against this Dortmund side.
"He obviously had a very difficult game and Dejan Lovren did very well to bail him out, but if you leave him out that will wreck his confidence.
"I would say Skrtel is very much in contention to start in Germany, but it's a very big call for Klopp."
Thompson, who won three European Cups at centre-back for Liverpool, believes the return of Brazilian Roberto Firmino could be key to their chances of taking a positive scoreline back to Anfield.
"I'm hoping Firmino will be fit as he's probably the most important player with the form he's been in," the Soccer Saturday pundit added.
"I do think that Liverpool have to score to have a chance of qualifying because you'd expect them to find the net, but they need to be clever and not go chasing the game at 1-0 like Tottenham did.
"It's the toughest game they could have got but if we go through then they've got a really good chance of winning the competition."
