Here are your Liverpool evening headlines for Thursday, January 5.
Liverpool uncertainty continues as Joel Matip injury admission shows need for new partnership
It may not quite be 2020/21 levels of absence. But Liverpool are once again struggling to keep their centre-backs fit and available this season, writes Ian Doyle.
Virgil van Dijk became the latest to fall with the hamstring injury he suffered during the first half of the dismal Premier League defeat at Brentford on Monday, the Dutchman visiting a specialist as he prepares for an extended spell on the sidelines.
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Before the season had even started, Ibrahima Konate sustained a knee problem that has helped restrict him to just five Liverpool outings this campaign. And when the Frenchman did make a swiftly aborted comeback in October, it was to replace Joel Matip who was then missing for the remainder of the first part of the term.
Joe Gomez is the only senior centre-back option to avoid serious injury - although a minor niggle meant Nat Phillips started alongside Van Dijk in the second Premier League game of the season at home to Crystal Palace - and has featured in 20 of 26 games this season, but his form has been affected more than most by the general Liverpool malaise.
Indeed, for only three games this season has Jurgen Klopp had all four centre-backs available - and two of those ended with one of the starters limping off through injury.
READ THE FULL STORY HERE.
Champions League rules explained as 'loophole' emerges for Cody Gakpo
Liverpool will have to leave at least two senior players out of their Champions League squad for the second half of the season, as things stand, following the arrival of Cody Gakpo.
Jurgen Klopp named a 24-man squad for this season’s group-stages, with the Reds not boasting enough club-trained players to name a full 25-man group. Barring the re-signing of a club-trained player in January, this will remain the case for the knockout stages.
Clubs are allowed to name a maximum of three new players in their Champions League squad at the mid-season point, with the expected inclusion of Gakpo, at one current player’s expense, set to fill up one such space.
But with Naby Keita and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain both not included in the squad for the first half of the season because of injury, if they are to both be selected, Liverpool won’t be able to register any other new players - which could hint that their transfer business for January is already complete. Meanwhile, two current players would still have to drop out to make room for the pair.
READ THE FULL STORY HERE.
READ NEXT:
- Liverpool may have already lined up Jude Bellingham's perfect midfield partner
- Key member of Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool backroom quietly moves to Manchester United
- Failed Liverpool loan signing forced to restrain own players amid VAR chaos
- Pep Lijnders, Liverpool problems and the truth about assistant manager criticism
- Cody Gakpo to start as Jurgen Klopp changes captain and unveils new-look Liverpool midfield
