Jurgen Klopp is without a number of key players at the moment ahead of Arsenal’s visit to Anfield tomorrow.
The Reds are unable to call upon the likes of Thiago Alcantara, Stefan Bajcetic, Diogo Jota and Joel Matip due to their respective injuries but it was another player currently sidelined through injury who our German tactician spoke about today.
Andy Robertson’s last appearance for Liverpool was the 2-2 draw with Brighton at the Amex in October before the full-back then injured his shoulder while representing Scotland a few days later.
Klopp provided an update on the fitness of our No. 26, claiming he hopes to see the former Dundee United man back in action in January.
“He is doing well,” the German told reporters in his press conference earlier today. “The problem is the shoulder is not there, the rest of the body is fine but we need to be patient a little bit.”
“He’s fine, he can do all the physical work already which annoys him quite a lot because he’s not allowed for ball training, a little bit of passing maybe and stuff like this, but not properly. Physically, when he’s ready to go, allowed to go shoulder wise, I think it’s a short time until he will be back. We all hope it will be in January but I don’t know.”
Kostas Tsimikas has deputised for the Scotsman and has performed solidly in recent weeks.
Robertson, however, is a very unique full-back with the immense amount of ground he covers when on the pitch and the top quality delivery he offers from the wide areas.
Although the Greek Scouser is a brilliant option to call upon when his teammate is on the treatment table, most Reds fans will agree that we’re a much stronger outfit when the ex-Hull City man is in the side.
We host Arsenal tomorrow before travelling to Burnley on Boxing Day. Our first game of 2024 sees Newcastle visit Anfield before we face the Gunners again away from home in the FA Cup.
It remains to be seen whether Robertson, who Klopp has previously labelled as a ‘leader’ (via Liverpoolfc.com), will be fit for those games but the sooner he’s back the better as we aim to compete on all four fronts this term.
During his press conference the Liverpool boss confirmed Ryan Gravenberch is in contention to feature tomorrow after missing Wednesday’s defeat of West Ham with a knock.
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