Jurgen Klopp has dropped an encouraging team news hint for Liverpool fans ahead of the Premier League showdown against Manchester City on Saturday.
The Reds manager held his pre-match press conference this afternoon and, when asked about player availability, he confirmed that only the long-term injury absentees are ruled out of contention to feature at the Etihad Stadium.
As per Liverpool Echo, the 56-year-old said: “Only the long-term absentees are still out. There were no new concerns before I entered this room.”
Klopp added that youngsters Conor Bradley and Kaide Gordon both trained with the first team this week following their recent layoffs, although he stressed that the former “needs to play games for the under-21s” before being in the frame for senior selection.
This update suggests that four players who missed the 3-0 win over Brentford immediately prior to the international break – Curtis Jones, Ibrahima Konate, Joe Gomez and Ryan Gravenberch – could all be fit enough to feature against Man City.
The quartet all trained with the Liverpool squad on Thursday (Liverpool Echo), as did the South American foursome of Alisson Becker, Luis Diaz, Darwin Nunez and Alexis Mac Allister following their transatlantic returns from national team duty.
From Klopp’s comments, the only definite absentees for Saturday are Thiago Alcantara, Andy Robertson and Stefan Bajcetic, all of whom are nursing longer-term concerns (Premier Injuries).
The manager will be breathing a huge sigh of relief that, aside from the aforementioned trio, everyone else is raring to go for the visit to the champions and league leaders, who are set to have Erling Haaland, Ederson and Nathan Ake available after their recent knocks.
The Liverpool boss is duly left with plenty of choice when it comes to selecting his starting XI tomorrow, which is exactly the way he’d have wanted it for such a pivotal fixture, one which could potentially offer a big clue as to who’ll be hoisting the Premier League trophy in six months’ time.
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