Luis Diaz and Dominik Szoboszlai will return to the starting lineup against Chelsea, while Alisson Becker is unavailable for Liverpool due to a hamstring injury.
Liverpool will aim to win for the 3000th time in club history when they welcome Chelsea to Anfield on Sunday evening. And Arne Slot has a new injury concern hampering his preparations ahead of his side’s latest fixture.
Alisson Becker picked up a hamstring injury against Crystal Palace and will spend the next few weeks on the sidelines. The Brazilian international has joined Harvey Elliott (foot) in the treatment room, while Federico Chiesa might not be fit enough to return to action against Chelsea this weekend.
During his pre-match press conference, Slot discussed Alisson’s injury and the timeline of his absence. In addition, the Dutch tactician spoke about several other players who picked up issues during the international break.
The Liverpool manager said, “Alisson is for sure not with us in the upcoming weeks, that’s clear. So, that’s a blow for him and for us because I think he did really well this season and did so well for this club for so many years. Now the good thing is, and I said this many times, that Caoimhin [Kelleher] did well for us in previous years and this season also, so we have a good replacement. But you always want all of your players available.”
“Now we’ve got quite some issues from players coming back from the national teams, and we can only judge that perfectly today because today is the first time that they are all in and the first time that they are all training together again. So, let’s see after the session where everybody is.”
The Liverpool boss continued, “Macca [Alexis Mac Allister] missed one game [for Argentina], he played the second one. Kostas [Tsimikas] missed out in the first game against England so I can name them all but we’ve got a few issues going on and let’s wait and see where we are after today. [Wataru] Endo as well was also sick.”
Mac Allister should feature in the double pivot in the middle of the park alongside Ryan Gravenberch despite his issues during the international break. Dominik Szoboszlai should return as the no. 10, with Curtis Jones dropping to the bench.
Diogo Jota will lead the line for the home side against Chelsea, with Luis Diaz and Mohamed Salah picking themselves on the flanks. As for the backline, Andrew Robertson should replace Kostas Tsimikas, joining Trent Alexander-Arnold, Ibrahima Konate, and Virgil van Dijk in the defensive quartet. Finally, Caoimhin Kelleher will replace Alisson Becker between the sticks.
Predicted Liverpool XI: Kelleher; Alexander-Arnold, Konate, van Dijk, Robertson; Gravenberch, Mac Allister; Salah, Szoboszlai, Diaz; Jota
