On Saturday afternoon, Wolves will visit Molineux as Liverpool looks to resume its winning ways in the Premier League.
The Reds enter this match having lost to Brighton & Hove Albion last Sunday in the FA Cup, and they have yet to win a league game this year.
The fact that Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool team prevailed at Molineux in their FA Cup third round replay in January is encouraging, and he will be desperate for a repeat performance in the league.
Although Ibrahima Konate has now been added to this list, Klopp is still unable to choose vital players like Virgil van Dijk, Roberto Firmino, Diogo Jota, and Luis Diaz. In Sunday’s defeat on the south coast, the Frenchman suffered a hamstring injury. Arthur Melo is still on the sidelines.
In his pre-game press conference, Klopp said that Ibou was out due to a muscular injury. “Again, he didn’t consider it to be very large. In the game, it occurred. Are you okay, I inquire of him. Yes, I’m alright. Treatment and a scan follow the game. “Bam,” out.
Before the team travels to Wolves, here is the complete roster that Klopp has at his disposal.
Defenders: Andy Robertson, Calvin Ramsay, Joe Gomez, Joel Matip, Kostas Tsimikas, Nat Phillips, Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Midfielders: Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Curtis Jones, Fabinho, Harvey Elliott, James Milner, Jordan Henderson, Naby Keita, Stefan Bajcetic, Thiago Alcantara.
Forwards: Ben Doak, Cody Gakpo, Darwin Nunez, Mohamed Salah
.Sidelined: Arthur Melo (muscle issue), Diogo Jota (calf injury), Luis Diaz (knee), Roberto Firmino (calf injury), Virgil van Dijk (hamstring), Ibrahima Konate (hamstring), Fabio Carvalho (minor issue).
Liverpool situation Jurgen Klopp knows is ‘not perfect’ has prompted another transfer rethink
It served as a mirror for Jurgen Klopp to see the inner monologue of his most troubled players. The Liverpool manager, though, had the option of talking about himself.
After a challenging campaign came to a grinding halt once more with an FA Cup defeat at Brighton & Hove Albion last Sunday, he joked, “Oh my God, everything is going against me,” and urged his underwhelming team members not to start feeling sorry for themselves.
However, Klopp could have been excused for thinking the same thing when word spread in the days that followed the game that Ibrahima Konate had become the newest Reds player to be sent to the treatment room, with a hamstring problem expected to keep the French defender out for up to three weeks.
Konate has been one of Liverpool’s better players ever since the start of the season following the World Cup, where he came within an Emiliano Martinez foot of setting up the game-winning goal in the final, like so many of his teammates.
It has forced Klopp to turn to yet another center-back pairing in Joel Matip and Joe Gomez since Virgil van Dijk has been out injured for more than a month. The Dutchman is anticipated to return to some training next week.
The Liverpool manager added, “You don’t want to have partnership changes; they’re not cool.” “When you are rotating or everyone is in the ideal situation, that is when you want to make them. However, it is clear that Joey and Joel have prior experience playing together, so this is not a major issue. Nevertheless, it is not ideal.”
Not really. Despite having more than 14 years of combined experience in the Liverpool squad, the pair has only previously lined up together four times at the center of the defense.
The first was also their last appearance in the Premier League; it was a 2-2 tie at Manchester City in November 2020, which came very soon after Gomez’s season-ending knee injury.
Despite Matip being replaced by Nat Phillips at halftime in both of their matches against Preston North End and AC Milan in the Champions League at home last year, they were paired both times. A 3-2 Carabao Cup defeat at City a few days before Christmas was the only time this season that Matip and Gomez were paired together.
But that’s it, really. Although it’s true that Van Dijk’s sway on the position has prevented any alliances without the Dutchman from succeeding, Gomez was similarly benched in October 2020 after he was given a nine-month injury suspension.
Given that the back four that started the Champions League final last May has only started one game this season, including the Reds’ best away Premier League performance in a 2-1 win at Tottenham Hotspur in November, the defensive issues that have weakened Liverpool this season are in some ways not surprising. Van Dijk, Konate, and Fabinho, the team’s chosen defensive spine, had really only started four games, three of which they won. Van Dijk was substituted at halftime in the fourth game, a loss against Brentford at the beginning of the year, due to an injury he sustained in the first half.
The recent setback for Konate has also had an effect on Phillips’ future, as Liverpool was much less eager to move on the center-back in the final days of the January transfer window even though they had recalled Rhys Williams from his loan at Blackpool in part to cover for a potential departure. And with rumors that the Reds might think about selling Matip this summer as he approaches the final 12 months of his contract, the turbulence at such a crucial position might soon get worse.
Naturally, when Liverpool was battling for Champions League qualification two years ago, they ultimately had to rely on Phillips and Williams during a Premier League campaign that saw the final quarter of the season played in April and May, much like this one.
Klopp will be hoping that it won’t happen to that pair this time. When Real Madrid visits Liverpool for the first leg of the Champions League round of 16 in three weeks, Van Dijk and Konate are not anticipated to be sidelined for a sizable amount of time. The Reds, meanwhile, are now relying on a center-back partnership that has not seen much action to push them closer to the top four.