Three of Liverpool’s star players are facing a race against time to be back for the second instalment of our mini-saga with Chelsea.
Gini Wijnaldum, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Virgil van Dijk all have issues, but will be desperate to play at Stamford Bridge this Saturday.
Last night we lost at Anfield in the EFL Cup, going down 2-1 to two late second-half goals. The first one definitely shouldn’t have stood, but the defending for the second was quite poor.
SEE MORE:
Klopp explains his post-match dressing down of Shaqiri
The side Jurgen Klopp picked was essentially a rotated XI, with most of our squad players starting. In fact, the only names who’ll likely start at the weekend that played from the outset were James Milner and Sadio Mane.
“We have a few little problems with Virgil, with Gini and with Trent since this morning, no real things but they couldn’t have played tonight so that’s one reason [for the changes]. And then making a few more changes makes sense because we need fresh legs tonight and Shaq showed he is ready, Daniel showed he is more than ready and Naby has to play tonight, that was clear,” Klopp told the official website.
Liverpool’s organisation and ability to control possession was much worse without our regular back-four and goalkeeper, in short.
We also probably wouldn’t have conceded the goal we did from the set-piece if van Dijk was on the pitch, and there’s suggestions Alisson might have got to Eden Hazard’s blast as well.
In fairness though, this will very much be forgotten if we pick up the three points in two days’ time.