Champions League · Tue 20 Oct, 20:00 BST
Anfield, Liverpool
Villarreal are patient, technical and happy to defend deep. Anfield will push Liverpool forward. Pick the eleven, set how high you play, and find out.
Kick-off in
Drag a player onto the pitch, or tap a player and then a shirt. I'll tell you what I think of every one.
Every pick and every change of plan moves these numbers.
Our predicted Liverpool starting XI for Liverpool vs Villarreal in a 4-3-3: the strongest eleven for each position from the current squad, with injured and unavailable players left out. Squad information as of 26 September 2026. Looking for the Liverpool lineup today? The confirmed Liverpool line up is announced about an hour before kick-off; until then, this is the prediction.
Disagree with the prediction? Use the lineup builder above to pick your own starting XI and formation, then play the match to see how it goes.
Liverpool: every predicted line-up, team news and match to play · All predicted line-ups
Liverpool are predicted to line up in a 4-3-3: Alisson Becker; Milos Kerkez, Virgil van Dijk, Ronald Araujo, Jeremie Frimpong; Alexis Mac Allister, Ryan Gravenberch, Dominik Szoboszlai; Florian Wirtz, Alexander Isak, Bradley Barcola. Squad information as of 26 September 2026.
Tuesday 20 October 2026, 20:00 BST, at Anfield, Liverpool (Champions League).
Conor Bradley (injured: knee, back in November at the earliest); Hugo Ekitike (injured: Achilles tendon, back around December or January).
About an hour before kick-off. Until then this is the predicted Liverpool line-up, and you can pick your own starting XI on this page and play the match.
A pre-match game. Liverpool v Villarreal has not been played yet, so there is no real result to match — you choose the Liverpool eleven, place every player wherever you like, set the approach, and the match runs on the spot.
This is not a prediction game. Nobody is keeping score and there is nothing to get right — the match has not been played yet, so there is no correct answer to find. Pick the eleven you would pick, or the eleven nobody would dare, and see what your team does with it.
This game comes down once the real match has finished. The full simulation — where you take the touchline in a match that really happened and change how it actually ended — lives on MatchRewrite permanently. Browse the clubs.
Before this one kicks off, play the matches that have already happened involving Liverpool and Villarreal. Each one is the real line-ups and the real result, and you make the calls that decided it.
Every match from this season · All upcoming Starting XI games