Jurgen Klopp has been discussing the likeliness of Virgil Van Dijk, Jordan Henderson and Trent Alexander-Arnold featuring against Manchester City next week.
The Reds return to competitive action against Pep Guradiola’s side at the Etihad on December 22 and after all three players were knocked out of the World Cup at the quarter-final stage, the German has a decision to make on whether they feature in the League Cup clash.
“Yeah, there’s a chance, of course – they train already,” the 55-year-old said (as quoted by GOAL). “Hendo is already training here. Virg is training here but I don’t think we will try that. Hendo we will see, Trent we will see. But this group worked now together for nearly two weeks and we made a real step and that’s cool. I don’t know in this moment.
“I hope we all get through it and we all know in England, and in Europe in general, there’s kind of a virus going around, so we hope we can stay out of that. Then we will make the decision obviously on Wednesday who can play on Thursday. But it’s good and will be a very interesting game after that period but I’m looking forward to it.”
From the former Borussia Dortmund manager’s comments, you’d expect our No. 4 to sit the clash out while the English duo look likely to feature, but it’s whether they earn minutes from the start or as substitutes that is the question.
Van Dijk, who captains the Netherlands, played every single minute out in Qatar and no unnecessary risks should be taken.
Henderson featured in four of the Three Lions’ five games while our No. 66 earned just 34 minutes all tournament.
The Anfield outfit won the League Cup for the ninth time last term and will therefore be eager to put in a decent showing against the Sky Blues next week as they attempt to regain the trophy.