Angus is an experienced football journalist at Football FanCast, specialising in Premier League reporting, opinion writing and in-depth football analysis. Since graduating from Southampton Solent University in 2022, he has developed extensive experience covering the English game, producing thousands of articles across a wide range of clubs and competitions.  

Before joining Football FanCast, Angus led VAVEL's Brighton & Hove Albion department, gaining valuable experience in club-specific reporting and editorial leadership. He subsequently joined Football FanCast through Snack Media's academy, now part of Valnet, and has progressed into the publication's Opinions and Features team.
 

As one of Football FanCast's longest-serving writers, Angus has covered numerous major developments across the Premier League, combining breaking news experience with detailed features and considered opinions. His work draws on years of reporting to provide context behind performances, transfer activity and the wider issues shaping English football.

Liverpool have only won one of their past five matches against Crystal Palace, but they need to buck that trend on Sunday afternoon, with Andoni Iraola's side having fallen to back-to-back defeats.

Arsenal scored and dug in at Anfield last week. It exposed the Reds' bluntness in attack, but they showed plenty of promise in the Premier League that day, and the Gunners are masters at shutting up shop. However, the Champions League collapse against Fenerbahce was more damning, making a moody comment on Liverpool's defensive fragility.

Selhurst Park can be a tough place to come, but Palace are struggling under Pierre Sage's management, and Liverpool cannot afford to cede further ground in a Premier League title race which is already fading into obscurity for a second season, with problems in the build-up limiting the scope of Iraola's vision.

Why Liverpool aren't creating enough

Liverpool need more creativity. They are struggling in the playmaking department, and the fact they have fashioned fewer big chances than all except Coventry City is inexcusable.

*Statistics correct before the start of matchweek ten in the Premier League.

But it's understandable. Florian Wirtz hasn't clicked as Liverpool's playmaker-in-chief, now over a year on from his £116m transfer from Bayer Leverkusen.

Moreover, FSG never really managed to fix Liverpool's right channel after losing Mohamed Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold over the past few months. Collaboratively, the right-siders offered a significant chunk of the Reds' creative success over so many years.

Something needs to change; if Liverpool fail to break down a brittle Palace side, gloomy questions will be raised.

It might feel a little drastic, but perhaps star midfielder Alexis Mac Allister should be benched.

Why Iraola should drop Mac Allister

Liverpool can't call upon Alexander-Arnold, whose 64 Premier League assists surpass those of any other defender in the history of the division. However, Iraola can chop and change in the middle of the park.

Last season, Mac Allister was one of the Liverpool players to have suffered the biggest drop-off. He fell by the wayside, all right, so far removed from the influential, all-action midfielder of the previous two years.

He's been steady, but he's not creating much for the forwards. There is a disconnect between the different areas of Liverpool's team on the pitch, especially in the build-up.

With Trey Nyoni both talented on the ball and progressive as a carrier, there's a case to be made that he should start over his Argentinian teammate - especially with Ryan Gravenberch's fitness uncertain.

Crystal Palace are brittle at the back. No team have conceded more goals than their 21 in the Premier League this season. With that in mind, Iraola should enforce a few tweaks from the line-up which lost to Arsenal at Anfield one week ago.

Perhaps the new Alexander-Arnold needs to replace Mac Allister in central midfield.

Liverpool must unleash their new Trent Alexander-Arnold

The easy and "safe" thing to do would be to drop Nyoni. However, the 19-year-old has been one of Liverpool's most impressive performers this season, taking his seat alongside Rio Ngumoha as one of the outfit's brightest sparks.

However, Nyoni is a real difference-maker, and he could work perfectly alongside Dominik Szoboszlai on this occasion, with Palace expected to be hemmed in by Liverpool pressure.

Of course, the Eagles are slick on the counter, but Szoboszlai's energy and intensity could be the perfect addition in the middle of the park, providing a box-to-box presence and allowing Florian Wirtz to stay in the advanced role, tasked with finally stepping up and producing a talismanic performance in attack.

Szoboszlai is not a pure creator in the same vein as Alexander-Arnold, but he has stepped up as Liverpool's vice-captain in the struggling Real Madrid star's absence. He is Liverpool's set-piece specialist, of course, taking that badge from Trent, once renowned for his peerless deliveries and dead ball efforts in the Premier League.

Szoboszlai's physicality and tenacity could be perfect for a Liverpool side who cannot afford to drop points in south London.

Should they do so, the pressure would intensify on Iraola and his side, who still aren't clicking, still can't find the formula for the kind of attacking play that Anfield demands of this mega-money team.

Though he hasn't had the strongest of starts to the season, Szoboszlai, who was head and shoulders above his Liverpool teammates last term, has the X-factor and drive to make things happen at a time when Liverpool must do all they can to get three points.

Assuming Iraola's side will bring the right kind of intensity, Szoboszlai might just be better in the centre of the park than Mac Allister.