The Potters have already beaten Manchester City and Tottenham on the road this season and now face the task of extending the Reds’ run of games without a win to six

Liverpool’s winless run has now reached five games and Stoke City manager Mark Hughes backs his side to extend that in Saturday’s Premier League clash at Anfield.

The Reds were held to a 2-2 Champions League draw at Ludogorets on Wednesday as their unimpressive season continued in Bulgaria.

Brendan Rodgers’s men would still qualify for the last 16 if they wintheir final group match but hopes of matching last season’s second-placed finish in the league are fading fast.

Sunday’s 3-1 defeat by Crystal Palace made it three top-flight losses in a row, leaving Liverpool languishing in 12th ahead of the visit of Stoke, who have already beaten Manchester City and Tottenham on the road this term.

“We are looking forward to the big games now. If you look at our form away from them you will see we’ve gone on our travels and played well,” Hughes told reporters.

“Confidence-wise, we are in decent shape with the win at Tottenham, which was comfortable in my opinion. We can go to Anfield and give another good account of ourselves, I am sure of that.

“We have made fundamental errors this season, though, and every time we do it seems like we are punished for them – certainly in the home games and against the teams that we are expected to beat.

“They sit in there with bodies behind the ball and that is always difficult to overcome. We’ve conceded at the key times in games. Scoring first is important in the Premier League and, in too many matches, we haven’t done so.

“I think that we approached the Man City and Tottenham games in a positive manner but we had a gameplan. We’ve been organised and difficult to break down but have had a threat on the break. We’ve had success with that on our travels. Maybe it has been a little bit easier in some ways away from home.”

Liverpool striker Daniel Sturridge remains on the sidelines due to a thigh injury, while Rodgers will assess the fitness of Mario Balotelli (groin), Jose Enrique (knee), Mamadou Sakho (thigh) and Suso (groin).

Hughes is hopeful that Asmir Begovic, Geoff Cameron and Phil Bardsley will recover from a virus that has affected the club in the build-up.

Oussama Assaidi is unable to face his parent club due to the terms of his loan move but Marc Wilson (hamstring) and Erik Pieters (calf) could return after missing their loss to Burnley due to injury.

On-loan winger Victor Moses, who spent last season at Liverpool, will play no part after being ruled out for up to eight weeks with a thigh injury and has returned to parent club Chelsea for treatment.

The striker is yet to score a goal in the Premier League since joining for €20m in the summer, and his agent says not seeing his daughter regularly is making it difficult for him

Mario Balotelli is struggling to adapt to life at Liverpool because he is unable to see his daughter regularly, according to his agent Mino Raiola.

The striker has just two goals to his name, and none in the Premier League, in the 14 games he has played since completing a €20 million move from AC Milan during the summer.

Subsequently Balotelli has been linked with a move back to Serie A,specifically Roberto Mancini’s Inter, a switch Raiola has ruled out, and his representative is now backing the 24-year-old to come good at Anfield.

“You shouldn’t be criticising Mario. This difficult moment he’s going through is not related to football, but is down to the fact that he cannot see his daughter as often as he would like to,” Raiola told Corriere dello Sport.

“He needs a bit of time to adapt to Liverpool. One thing is for sure and that is that he will never return to Italy. I have already made the mistake to listen to him and bring him back to back to Italy once before.”

Balotelli is currently sidelined with a groin injury but said in an update on his official Instagram account that he hopes to be back in action soon before later deleting the post.

The Chile forward has been the standout star in north London since his €40 million arrival, and the 39-year-old feels he would have been the perfect replacement for Luis Suarez

Gary Neville feels Arsenal star Alexis Sanchez would have been the “perfect replacement” for Luis Suarez at Liverpool.

The Chile international was sold by Barcelona to make room for the arrival of Suarez for €86 million, allowing Arsene Wenger to secure the forward’s signature for €40m.

Sanchez has impressed since his arrival – boasting a team-high 14 goals and 30 chances created – and Neville feels the forward would have softened the blow of the Uruguayan’s exit with Liverpool’s form faltering since.

“[Sanchez] would have been an ideal replacement for Luis Suarez. Goals, tenacity, pressing from the front, loses the ball – it goes past him he runs back,” he told Sky Sports.

“Everything Liverpool would have wanted to replace Suarez, obviously you could argue he wouldn’t score the goals Suarez would score, but I think he would have been the perfect replacement for Suarez.

“It’s a real shame for Liverpool they didn’t get him, but a massive plus for Arsenal.”

Sanchez scored his 14th goal of the season on Wednesday night as Arsenal beat Borussia Dortmund to qualify for the Champions League knockout stage for the 15th consecutive season.