It's time for your Liverpool FC morning headlines on Friday, November 4.
Virgil van Dijk's frosty response when asked to join Jamie Carragher on Monday Night Football
Virgil van Dijk is adamant that Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher would not have been able to get into Jurgen Klopp’s current Reds side.
Carragher made 737 appearances during a 17-year Anfield career, second only to Ian Callaghan in Liverpool 's all-time charts, and was a vital member of the Reds sides that won the Champions League in 2005 and the treble in 2001. Meanwhile, he'd also lift the FA Cup again in 2006, win two more League Cups in 2003 and 2012 and also two European Super Cups.
Yet when asked by former Manchester United Gary Neville in the Liverpool legend would have been good enough to start for Klopp’s side, in a fans’ Q&A section of ‘ The Overlap ’, the Dutchman insisted Carragher wouldn’t even get in the squad ahead of the likes of Ibrahima Konate and Joel Matip.
READ MORE: Ibrahima Konate gives Liverpool easy decision to make as Trent Alexander-Arnold change suggested
“Like the squad or the XI? Not even the full squad,” he said dismissively to Neville’s great amusement. “Not in the first 20, he’d be in the stands. Yeah (I mean that).
“You have two centre-backs playing. Hopefully I’m playing, and Joe Gomez now. You have Matip and Konate. You’re not going to put a third centre-back on the bench.
“No (he wouldn’t get in ahead of them) and I’m dead serious as well. Do you think he was better than Konate and Matip? He played many, many games for Liverpool but I think in the modern day game, Matip and Konate would be ahead of him.”
Read the full story HERE.
Liverpool transformation has already begun and Jurgen Klopp has just dropped his strongest hint yet
It wasn't quite the changing of the guard. But there was something notably different from the team that started for Liverpool against Napoli compared to those still on the pitch come the final whistle.
Of the players who took to the field at Anfield in the closing Champions League group game on Tuesday night, seven were aged 30 or above, captain James Milner - just over two months shy of his 37th birthday - the oldest.
The average age of the team was 28 years 266 days. By comparison, Napoli's starting XI had an average age of 26 years 164 days.
Come the full-time whistle, though, the situation had changed dramatically, with Liverpool's average age plummeting to 24 years 103 days, altered by a raft of substitutions that saw Jurgen Klopp turn to the younger players at his disposal to first help the Reds gain their late advantage and then ultimately see out a 2-0 triumph against the Serie A side.
While the advancing years of the Liverpool squad has been a concern that has quietly been addressed in the transfer market in recent years - all the way back to Harvey Elliott's arrival in the summer of 2019 - Klopp's continued reliance on his tried and trusted has been brought into sharp focus by the travails of this campaign.
Read the full story HERE.
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Liverpool handed Champions League boost as Manchester City and Chelsea face nightmare last-16 draw
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- Son Heung-Min surgery confirmed as Tottenham dealt double injury blow ahead of Liverpool clash
- 'Full of banter' - 'Boring' James Milner claim dismissed as Liverpool midfielder nears landmark
