Klopp offers team news update, 3 players to miss Liverpool’s clash with Genk

Liverpool are back in Champions League action when they welcome Genk to Anfield on Tuesday night.

Ahead of the game Jurgen Klopp has been speaking to the media at his pre-match press conference this afternoon and he’s provided an injury update while hinting that he’s ready to rotate his squad against the Belgian outfit.

Klopp was pleased to confirm that Liverpool suffered no fresh injury concerns during their thrilling 2-1 comeback victory over Aston Villa on Saturday afternoon which saw the Reds score two late goals to snatch all three points at Villa Park.

However, Klopp says none of his current injury absentees will be fit to return tomorrow night so Xherdan Shaqiri remains on the sidelines with a calf injury that’s hampered him for a number of weeks.

Joel Matip has missed the last four games in all competitions due to a knee injury that he sustained during Liverpool’s 1-1 draw with Manchester United last month and the centre-back isn’t expected back in full training until December.

The final absentee for Liverpool is Nathaniel Clyne and the right-back remains on the sidelines with his own serious knee complaint that he suffered in pre-season and will keep him out until some point in 2020.

With a relatively healthy squad to choose from, Klopp is set to freshen things up against Genk tomorrow night with the Liverpool boss having one eye on Sunday’s huge Premier League showdown against Manchester City.

Klopp told Liverpoolfc.com:

“I think [it’s] pretty much as we looked before the last game [against] Aston Villa, nothing really changed.

“Nobody told me anything. Yesterday in training everybody could do what he had to do, but in this period of the year we know things can happen overnight [but] no, nothing [new] that I know. Everything should be fine.”

“The problem is not now the game on Sunday [against Manchester City] because between Tuesday and Sunday is a lot of time, but of course we have to think a little bit about Saturday to Tuesday – that’s the shorter break between the games, so we have to think,”

“But it’s all about having the best formation for this game, nothing else. It was always like this and will always be like this. How I said, we respect them a lot and we knew how difficult it was there. Yes, we scored the goals but it was not the best performances of the last 20 years of us and one of the reasons [for that] was Genk, to be honest.

“So, we will hopefully have a couple of fresh legs in. It’s clear that we want that, but it’s not like we will do so many changes that you cannot recognise our team anymore and think ‘who is that?’.

“No, this period was absolutely OK because we made changes against Arsenal, we had to, then we played Aston Villa, now we have to look a little bit at what we do tomorrow night. But then we have enough time to prepare for City.”

Liverpool beat Genk 4-1 in the reverse fixture two weeks ago so Klopp should be confident of seeing-off the Belgian side at Anfield and victory tomorrow night would put them in a great position to qualify from Group E.

Therefore, it makes complete sense for Klopp to rotate his squad as the City game on Sunday will have a huge bearing on this seasons Premier League title race so I expect a number of Liverpool’s key men to be rested against Genk.