7 Apr 2017

Confirmed Team News: Double disaster for Klopp; €78m duo out; 'Amazing' Liverpool star misses training

Liverpool are in the midst of a major injury crisis ahead of Saturday's Premier League clash with Stoke City.

In his pre-match press conference today, Reds boss Jurgen Klopp provided the following injury updates:

* On Mane: "Sadio is not involved. He’ll need surgery, and his season is over. It’s pretty much impossible he’ll play again this season".

* On Lallana: "He is better, but he’s not an option for tomorrow".

* On Henderson: "Hendo is in a good way, but I don’t when he can be back in training again".

* On Coutinho: "Phil is still sick, and hasn’t been in training yesterday or today. It doesn’t look too good. It’ll be really close".

* On Sturridge: "Daniel is part of training, and there are no major issues".

Sturridge trained before the Bournemouth game, too, yet Klopp refused to bring him on in the second half due to the ‘intensity’ of the game, so what's different about the Stoke match? That will also be an intense game, so is Klopp going to hold Sturridge back again, or actually utilise him for the benefit of the team?

If - as Klopp suggested after the Bournemouth draw - Sturridge is not fit to play intense games right now, he shouldn't be on the bench. Possible lineup if Coutinho joins Mane, Lallana, and Hendo on the sidelines:

----------- Mignolet
Arnold - Lovren - Matip —— Clyne
------ Can -- Lucas -- Wijnaldum
---- Milner — Origi — Firmino

OR:
----------- Mignolet
Clyne - Lovren - Matip —— Milner
------ Can -- Lucas -- Wijnaldum
---- Wilson — Origi — Firmino

If Wilson - who has over 50 goals/assists for the U23s this season - can't get into the team when the Reds are crying out for wing cover, then he should just quit at the end of the season. There's no point of staying at Liverpool if Wilson is ignored when there's an obvious space for him in the team.

On a related note: watching Liverpool press conferences is torturous at the best of times due the utter inanity of the questions asked by so-called 'journalists'. Today, the ignoramus award for the stupidest question of the day goes to this gem put to Klopp by some witless tabloid hack:

"With Mane out for the rest of the season, and Lallana and Henderson out, how much is that stopping you from being the team you want to be? Is that compromising to you at all?"

Seriously, this fatuous, kindergarten level of question is the norm during Liverpool press conferences. Klopp (rightly) laughed at the question, which is - as he noted - ridiculously self-explanatory.

Why can't these fawning hacks ask useful, insightful questions?

* Lallana/Hendo: Combined €78m-value (CIES Football Observatory). Coutinho: Hailed as 'amazing' by Joel Matip.


0 Comments:

Post a Comment