Leicester City, the English Premier League champions, will take the field on Monday against Liverpool, without the manager that led them to the most improbable of titles last year.
Likely lineups of Leicester City vs Liverpool
Claudio Ranieri was sacked by the Leicester owners on Thursday, leaving the champions without a manager and staring at possible relegation.
Those fears only increased when Leicester dropped into the bottom three after Crystal Palace won during the weekend, and while Ranieri was let go to give the Foxes the best chances of staving off relegation, it will be interesting to see if that ends up being the right decision or not.
Craig Shakespeare will take charge of this match against Liverpool and the Leicester hierarchy will hope the players, who have been criticised for reportedly having a hand in Ranieri's sacking, find inspiration from within to take them to victory on Monday.
"We're going to have to improve because we haven't been able to hit the standards that are required this season," Leicester goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel told LCFC TV. "We are in a situation where we have kind of a mini-season of 13 games to go now where we have to improve if we want to stay in this league.
"Any win in the Premier League is huge. We are in desperate need of a win – there's no question about that. It's about belief – we have to keep believing and having the faith to keep working hard."
Klopp will be wary of facing Leicester in this situation. While no permanent manager could lead to confusion, it also acts a way for the players to get together and find the right path towards finding their form from last season.
"[First] game without Ranieri, I don't think they will change (their tactics), I am not sure," Klopp said. "Of course, probably the players have to show a few things and they want to, and our job is to not let them, that's difficult enough.
"Things I can't have influence on, I cannot really think about. If we play our best, we will be difficult to play against whoever, and that's the thing we think about."
Leicester City come into this match in terrible form – they are yet to score a single goal in the Premier League in 2017 and are currently 18th in the table, a point away from safety.
Liverpool, though, after their own difficult start to the new year, have turned their fortunes around, with Klopp's side putting on a terrific performance in their last EPL game, when they got the better of Tottenham 2-0.
If Liverpool, playing their first game in over two weeks, manage to put in a similar performance against Leicester on Monday, the champions are likely to remain in the relegation zone.
When to Watch Live
Leicester City vs Liverpool is set to begin at 8pm GMT, 3pm ET, 1.30am (Tuesday) IST.
Live Streaming and TV information
India: TV: Star Sports Select HD2. Live Streaming: Hotstar.
UK: TV: Sky Sports. Live Streaming: Sky Sports Go.
Australia: TV: Optus Sport. Live Streaming: Optus Online.
USA: TV: NBCSN, Telemundo. Live Streaming: NBC Sports Live.
Canada: TV: TSN1, TSN3, TSN4. Live Streaming: TSN TV.
Middle East, Thailand and North Africa: TV: Bein Sports Arabia. Live Streaming: Bein Sports Connect.
Germany, Japan, Switzerland: DAZN.
