Liverpool will once again be without a number of players for Wednesday’s Premier League clash against Newcastle United at St. James’ Park. Ibrahima Konate, Conor Bradley, and Kostas Tsimikas who missed the Reds’ 3-0 win over Manchester City last weekend have been ruled out for weeks due to injury.
Diogo Jota and Alisson Becker are also expected to miss the league encounter while Federico Chiesa is back in team training and Harvey Elliott made his return from injury as a late substitute versus Man City.
Caoimhin Kelleher will continue to deputise for Alisson on Wednesday, however, Arne Slot expects the Brazilian to be fit again before the end of the year. He said: “We are just waiting for the moment that Alisson is completely fit because Caoimh is doing too well to put Alisson in goal if he is only on 50 per cent [fitness] and that would not be good for Alisson and not be good for the team.
“He’s getting there. It might take a few more extra days but he’s getting closer and closer and like I’ve always said the end phase of rehab is always the period where you feel like, ‘OK, is he really there or does he need a few extra days?’
“But he will be in goal before the end of December if things continue like they are.”
Slot also confirmed that he has to be creative in his team selection as he only has Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez, Jarell Quansah, Trent Alexander-Arnold, and Andy Robertson as senior options at the back.
“So, last weekend against City, we didn’t think it was smart to play Trent [Alexander-Arnold] for 90 minutes after his injury,” he replied.
“That’s probably going to be the same tomorrow and on Saturday as well, so then we have to be creative – and for me Jarell [Quansah] playing over there is not so creative [because] he is able to play there.
“Maybe for whatever reason, if we need Jarell as a centre-back because if one of the centre-backs cannot continue the game, then we need to be even more creative.”
Liverpool are top of the league table with 34 points, nine points above Arsenal and Chelsea, who sit joint-second in the table and 11 points adrift of Man City. Below is the full Liverpool squad to face Newcastle United:
Caoimhin Kelleher, Vítezslav Jaros, Harvey Davies
Virgil Van Dijk, Jarell Quansah, Joe Gomez, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Andy Robertson
Alexis Mac Allister, Dominik Szoboszlai, Curtis Jones, Harvey Elliott, Wataru Endo, Ryan Gravenberch, Tyler Morton, Trey Nyoni
Mohamed Salah, Cody Gakpo, Luis Diaz, Darwin Nunez, Federico Chiesa*
*In doubt
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