Jurgen Klopp has said ‘there will be changes’ to the Liverpool starting XI for Tuesday night’s visit to Stamford Bridge.
The Reds travel to west London just three days after a sobering 4-1 defeat at Manchester City dented their hopes of salvaging a Champions League place for next season, with 11 matches left to reel in a gap of eight points to the top four.
The manager candidly admitted that his side were fortunate not to ship an even heavier result at the Etihad Stadium, such was the home team’s dominance (via Sky Sports), and he looks set to wield the axe in selecting his starting XI to face Chelsea tomorrow night.
Klopp confirmed in his pre-match press conference that Luis Diaz and Thiago remain unavailable through injury, also hinting at plans to make changes to his side, although he intends to hold off on making decisions until closer to kick-off.
Speaking to the media today (via LFC’s official YouTube channel), he said: “The boys are still good people and they want to show a reaction, 100%, but the short turnaround is the problem.
“I have no clue who can line up until I get his information after the press conference, because we want to wait with these decisions as long as possible and give the boys as much time to recover.
“There will be changes, definitely there has to be.”
It’ll come as no surprise that the Liverpool line-up at Stamford Bridge could look notably different to the one on Saturday, given the need for a big improvement on the Man City game and the necessity for squad rotation considering the short timespan between the two matches.
You can catch Klopp’s press conference in full below, via @LFC on YouTube: