In and up and down season, it feels like Liverpool are constantly looking for a reaction and things will be no different when Arsenal visit Anfield tomorrow. Coming off a disappointing loss to struggling Premier League champions Leciester City, Reds boss Jurgen Klopp will be looking to propel his side back in to the race for Champions League football.
“For Jordan it will be too soon, for sure. That will take time,” said the German when asked whether club captain Jordan Henderson will be fit in time to face the Gunners. Dejan, we will see. He [did] part of team training the day before yesterday, and then yesterday he was in full team training,” said Klopp, hinting that the Croatian defender could play a part. “Now we have to see how he reacts on this. He will be involved in training again, if nobody tells me anything different. Then we have to make a decision,” continued the Liverpool manager. “It’s not the longest, he was out for pretty much four weeks, [he has been] training for three days and in the end I have to make a decision. I am not sure about it [at the moment].”
If only to underline his importance to the squad, the Reds have conceded five goals and lost two of the three games that Lovren missed. While Lucas did admirably to keep Tottenham Hotspur man Harry Kane at bay in their win over the North London outfit, he struggled to keep pace with Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy as the Foxes striker claimed a brace on the Brazilian’s back. Our problems at the back have been well documented, but we’ve got problems up top too with a number of chances going begging at the King Power Stadium on Monday night. Now, it’s unlikely that Daniel Sturridge would be the solution to that problem — having him on the bench wouldn’t hurt our chances of finding the back of the net, but Klopp has confirmed that he won’t be on the bench come Saturday evening.
“Daniel was ill – really, really ill. Now he has a strain in his hip muscle. It happened in the rehab session,” explained the Reds boss. “It’s not the biggest one, it’s very small, but it keeps him out of normal training for probably another week,” added Klopp, not sounding all that bothered. “In this week he can train, but not in team training.”
