David Wagner faces close friend Jurgen Klopp on Saturday afternoon as his Huddersfield Town side make the 60-mile journey west to take on Liverpool at Anfield.
The Terriers boss will be the happier of the two German coaches at this stage in the season after seeing his side adapt well to Premier League football, while the hosts are hopelessly out of form and in real need of a boost.
Liverpool
© SilverHub
Even accounting for the 7-0 thrashing of a terrible Maribor side last week, plus a commendable point at home to Manchester United in a match they deserved to win, Liverpool have badly struggled to hit the heights many expected them to in recent weeks.
Two months ago to the weekend the Reds were putting four goals past Arsenal to show their Premier League title credentials, fresh on the back of navigating their way past tricky opponents Hoffenheim to qualify for the Champions League group stage.
All was well in the life of Klopp then but, fast forward eight weeks, his side find themselves ninth in the top flight - a seemingly unassailable 12 points adrift of leaders Manchester City - and out of one of the domestic cup competitions at the first hurdle.
Klopp actually confessed ahead of a ball being kicked at Wembley Stadium last week that the title may already be out of Liverpool's reach and, on the basis of the 4-1 defeat that followed, it is difficult to argue with those thoughts from the former Borussia Dortmund boss.
Beating Maribor by seven goals should have acted as the turning point for Liverpool, but that remains just one of two victories in their last 10 matches overall since comfortably seeing off Arsenal at the end of August when at their free-flowing best.
In the league alone 12 points have been dropped from the last 18 on offer, beating just Leicester City during that time, only putting added significance on this weekend's match as they seek a first league win in six.
With only Chelsea and Arsenal left to play of the elite clubs before Christmas, and a passage through to the last 16 of the Champions League close to being sealed, Klopp will now be desperate to find some momentum to prevent the Reds' season from sliding into oblivion.
Liverpool have gone six Prem matches without defeat at Anfield since Crystal Palace left with all three points in April, keeping a clean sheet in five of those, but this is not quite the fortress of old and Huddersfield may well fancy their chances of piling on further misery.
Recent form in Premier League: LDWDDL
Recent form (all competitions): WDDDWL
Huddersfield Town
© SilverHub
Backed by many to go straight back down upon promotion from the Championship last season, Huddersfield supporters will be delighted to have proven many of their doubters wrong with nearly a quarter of the campaign now played.
In truth, the Terriers were at risk of drifting and largely had to rely on their August results to keep them away from trouble heading into last weekend's meeting with Man United at the John Smith's Stadium.
Seven matches without a victory in all competitions saw them fall from the top four to 13th, while also exiting the EFL Cup to Crystal Palace during that run, but Aaron Mooy and Laurent Depoitre struck last week to give those stats a different slant.
On a dramatic afternoon in West Yorkshire, the Terriers humbled their high-flying opponents - the only side to get the better of the Red Devils this term - and now find themselves within one point of Liverpool in mid-table.
Should Town pick up all three points on Saturday they will become just the fourth promoted side in Prem history to beat Man United and Liverpool in the same season, following in the footsteps of Bolton Wanderers, Portsmouth and Man City before them.
A word of caution, though - the Reds have lost just one of their last 42 matches against newly-promoted sides and are unbeaten in the last 19, so pulling off the second major coup in the space of seven days will be a big ask.
Wagner has seen his reputation grow and grow since arriving in English football two years ago, taking Huddersfield up in his first full campaign at the helm and constantly learning from this top-flight experience, having altered his gameplan for that win over United on the back of being heavily beaten by Tottenham Hotspur just a few weeks beforehand.
The popular German coach celebrated that first victory over United since 1952 with some Coke - of the fizzy drink variety - though should he produce a similar result on Merseyside this weekend he may have to go for something a little stronger.
Recent form in Premier League: LDDLLW
Recent form (all competitions): DLDLLW
Team News
© Offside
Dejan Lovren had a shocker of an afternoon at Wembley last time out, finding himself at fault for the first two goals and lasting just a third of the match before being taken off.
Klopp is therefore expected to shake up his backline somewhat for the visit of the Terriers, possibly using Joe Gomez and Joel Matip together in the heart of defence and Alberto Moreno and Trent Alexander-Arnold at full-back.
Adam Lallana, Nathaniel Clyne and Sadio Mane all remain sidelined, however, meaning that Klopp cannot change things around too much, but Georginio Wijnaldum is an option to replace James Milner in the middle of the park.
In terms of the visitors, Steve Mounie returned to action against United after a five-match spell out injured and provides another option to Depoitre up front, though he will likely have to settle for a place on the bench for now.
Elias Kachunga left the field early against United with a back problem to be replaced by Rajiv van La Parra and remains a doubt for this Anfield clash, potentially seeing him join the likes of Kasey Palmer, Collin Quaner and Philip Billing on the sidelines.
Mooy has been directly involved in 10 league goals for Huddersfield this calendar year, meanwhile, scoring four and setting up six more, with the Australia international likely to start just off Depoitre in a 4-2-3-1 formation.
Liverpool possible starting lineup:
Karius; Alexander-Arnold, Gomez, Matip, Moreno; Can, Henderson, Wijnaldum; Salah, Firmino, Coutinho
Huddersfield Town possible starting lineup:
Lossl; Smith, Schindler, Zanka, Lowe; Hogg, Williams; Van La Parra, Mooy, Ince; Depoitre
Head To Head
These two sides have met on 75 occasions since their first encounter in March 1920, though not at all since the turn of the century.
The most recent competitive match came in 1999 when Liverpool earned a 2-0 win in the FA Cup to extend their unbeaten run in this fixture to 10 matches.
Huddersfield also fell to a loss by the same scoreline when they faced off more recently in friendly competition, tasting defeat at the John Smith's Stadium in the summer of 2016 in a Shankly Trophy clash.
We say: Liverpool 2-0 Huddersfield Town
Buoyed by their result against Man United last weekend, Huddersfield will travel to Merseyside full of confidence and with nothing to lose. Liverpool, on the other hand, know that anything less than victory and serious questions will be asked of Klopp, who is surely already counting down the days to the transfer window.
Daniel Lewis
