Cody Gakpo and Bobby Clark will feature in the Liverpool starting lineup against Nottingham Forest on Saturday.
Despite their massive injury problems, Liverpool managed to win the Carabao Cup last weekend, and they picked up an impressive result against Southampton in the FA Cup. The Reds are full of confidence right now, they will look to grind out all three points and pull clear of Manchester City and Arsenal at the top when they take on Nottingham Forest on Saturday.
Jurgen Klopp has confirmed in his pre-match press conference that the clash against Nottingham Forest will be too soon for Mohamed Salah to feature but that he should be back next week. Liverpool will be without Thiago Alcantara, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Stefan Bajcetic, Alisson Becker, Ryan Gravenberch, Curtis Jones, Diogo Jota and Joel Matip.
The return of Dominik Szoboszlai and Darwin Nunez comes as a major boost, but Jurgen Klopp might choose to introduce them gradually rather than throwing them in from the start, especially with key match-ups against Manchester City coming up.
The Liverpool manager said, “Darwin and Dom trained yesterday with the team. So, they looked good, but we have to wait [to see] how they react. Wataru and Robbo didn’t, but there is the plan that they join in today, that’s the idea but we have to see if that really works out.”
“Ibou [Ibrahima Konate], nothing, it [him not starting against Southampton] was just time-sharing. Lucho [Luis Diaz] is fine, Macca [Alexis Mac Allister] is fine. They all look fine.”
“The little problem, we couldn’t know about, is that Macca was ill for one-and-a-half days I would say and Robbo had the same thing, so hopefully that didn’t spread now. So far I didn’t hear anything [but] I didn’t ask because I don’t want to know probably! So, we will see.”
“I don’t think Mo is too far off, but he will not feature tomorrow and from there we have to go. It’s like touch and go… but I think next week at any point it is possible. He is on the way back, definitely, but not there yet.”
Caoimhin Kelleher will start in goal for Liverpool, and they will deploy a back four of Joe Gomez, Ibrahima Konate, Virgil van Dijk and Andrew Robertson. In the midfield, Harvey Elliott and Bobby Clark are likely to be handed starts. Alexis Mac Allister is likely to start in the anchor role, and he will control the tempo of the game from the deep. He will look to help out defensively as well.
Cody Gakpo is set to lead the line once again, with Luis Diaz on his left and Conor Bradley on the right. Although in an unfamiliar role, Bradley has shown that he can offer attacking support, and he will look to help out Gomez in defence as well.
Predicted Liverpool XI: Kelleher; Gomez, Konate, van Dijk, Robertson; Elliott, Mac Allister, Clark; Bradley, Gakpo, Diaz
