From having no fit senior central defenders for much of last season, Jurgen Klopp now finds himself with an embarrassment of riches in the heart of his defence.
And the Liverpool manager intends to keep it that way by rotating the key defensive positions more than he has done in the past.
He wants to ensure that Virgil Van Dijk, Joel Matip, Joe Gomez – who all missed most of last season with serious injuries – are not over-burdened with appearances while easing new boy Ibrahima Konate into the Premier League and keeping Nat Phillips, who impressed in the injury-crisis last season, involved with game-time as well.
Klopp has been able to loan out Rhy Williams to Swansea and Ben Davies to Sheffield United and didn’t take up the option to sign Ozan Kabak, who came on loan from Schalke in January and is now with Norwich on a similar deal.
Already Van Dik and Matip have been rested in two of Liverpool’s seven games in all competitions so far while Konate and Gomez have both made two starts. Only Phillips has yet to get on the pitch but his time will come.
Of the five, Van Dijk is likely to play the bulk of the games but Klopp stresses he will continue to monitor the situation, will not play the same pairing in every game and wants to ensure all his defenders, including the full-backs, get enough games to maintain some sort of rhythm and ensure flexibility with different partnerships.
Significantly, Liverpool have conceded only one goal in their six domestic League and Cup games so far, having played four different centre back pairings.
“I have tried to be careful and sensible with the centre half situation so far,” said Klopp. “We all know the three boys [Van Dijk, Matip and Gomez] had big injuries last season. I don’t like to talk about it, it is in the past, but of course, we have to react to that. We can’t just think ‘Ok that’s it, from now on we do it exactly like we did before.’
“They need to get rhythm – all of them – that is what we are trying to give them, but we need to win football games as well, so that is the balance we are trying to achieve. So far it has worked out and hopefully, it will stay like this forever. That would be really good news.”
“It is not that teams have not had a shot on target yet. Ali [Alisson] has made some brilliant saves in some moments but, as a unit, we have defended pretty well so far.
“Before the season started no-one wanted to hear it but we have three new players without buying them – Joel, Virg and Joe – and we have brought in Ibra. We are more stable. You have to defend and grind out results from time to time and that’s what we have done.”
Klopp will have no concerns if Gomez is recalled into the England squad by Gareth Southgate for next month’s international break, 10 months after he was injured in a training session with his country.
“If he got invited I have no issues with that,” he added. “It would be good for Joe, He needs games, he needs to play, definitely.”
Klopp has noted the height of tomorrow’s opponents Brentford so seems likely to play Van Dijk and Matip to counter the aerial threat posed by Thomas Frank’s newly-promoted team.
Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson will return after missing the last two games and Roberto Firmino is fit again after missing the last four. But Thiago Alcantara will be out until after the international break with a calf injury while Naby Keita is also injured.
Probable Liverpool team (4-3-3): Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson; Jones, Fabinho, Henderson; Salah, Jota, Mane.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/39IsUPj
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