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Liverpool injury news ahead of Man City as Jürgen Klopp addresses media
Jurgen Klopp will speak to the media today as Liverpool return to action with a huge Premier League game against Man City.
The game at the Etihad Stadium kicks off at 12.30 and the Reds are desperate for points to close the gap to the top four in the Premier League. They are currently seven points behind fourth-place Spurs with two games to go.
Luis Diaz has given Liverpool a timely boost with a return to full training before the match, while Darwin Nunez has also been training after injury saw him withdraw from international duty with Uruguay. Naby Keita, meanwhile, appears to have suffered another injury after playing twice for Guinea. For CIty, Erling Haaland is a huge doubt after an ankle injury and Phil Foden has been ruled out after undergoing surgery for appendicitis.
Klopp on whether international break was used to plan new sporting director/new arrivals
Couldn’t schedule workouts as we didn’t know who was there, so yeah. player side, positive. There are talks, but no decisions. As you can imagine, we’re busy.”
Klopp reacts to setbacks
When we’re in the game, we’re strong – but we have to make sure we’re in the game. We need to deal with setbacks better. It’s something we have to work on.”
Klopp with bad results against minor teams
There are many explanations for the defeats. Forest and Bournemouth are very different but we should have won both games. When we have struggled in the past, we have struggled with possession against these two teams. We improved, but we didn’t finish and we reacted badly.”
Klopp on Liverpool with best mini-league top-six record
Oh nice! The main reason is that we didn’t play well enough against the others. When things go well, you finish your situations. In general, if you don’t score, you need to try harder.
Klopp on handling squad selection with three games in eight days
It’s the same thing, being aware and selecting the best team. We have to go full throttle. Here’s how it is and what we’ll try to do.”
Klopp on team injuries
Naby is out. He returned from the national team with a muscle injury. We’ll see how long it lasts. Thiago is on the right track but isn’t part of the team’s training yet. He will probably be in training next week. Rhys Williams has a little something. We’ve had stomach flu here and there, but it stopped two days ago.”
Klopp on Liverpool who have made a habit of finishing seasons on a high
Historically we finish strong. Almost four trophies last year. We’re going out early this year. Bring back to earth. He has gone. Now it’s clear that we can only reach the top 4. We don’t have a perfect position, but it’s possible.”
Klopp on the big week ahead
It’s like a Champions League week. I’m super excited. We are not stupid. We know the last game against Madrid was not a good game, before that at Bournemouth it was not a good game, the one before was world class. We have to build on that and react to the other two games.”
Klopp on Haaland injury doubts his plans
Not too much. When setting up a game, you set everything up to avoid the final pass – and that’s where Erling really comes in. He’s a real striker, but they became champions without a striker. It’s like that, you never know 100% who can play.”
Pep Guardiola said in his press conference that Haaland is ‘recovering’ and the striker will decide if he can play.
Blow on the city
It’s a super important game. This is the only thing that does not differ from all other years. We know it’s a huge game, a huge week ahead. They deserve all the attention for tomorrow, we can’t think about the other games.”
Klopp on Diaz and Nunez
Luis is back in small bits of training. It’s great to have him back, but he won’t train with us today. This week was the first step back to team training. Next week we will increase this. It looks very promising, we are in the final stages.
Darwin was unable to train for two or three days this week but trained yesterday. He’s back in the race.”
Top 6 list
Liverpool currently have the best head-to-head record in games against the top six this season, a trend the Reds are looking to continue on Saturday.
Their current record is currently P7 W5 N2 (15 points) against Man City (13 points), Arsenal (13 points), Manchester United (13 points), Newcastle (6 points), Tottenham (3 points). Haaland update expected
Pep Guardiola’s press conference is expected to coincide with Jurgen Klopp’s speech to the media.
The City boss is expected to give an update on Erling Haaland who missed Norway’s last two Euro 2024 qualifiers and was absent from training yesterday.
Luis Diaz returns
Liverpool fans could see Luis Diaz return to action on Saturday afternoon after a lengthy injury layoff.
The Colombian hasn’t featured for the Reds since their 3-2 loss to Arsenal in October and has been a major failure for the Reds since being sidelined.
Although a start at the Etihad is unlikely, it is possible that Diaz could be brought in as a replacement at some point in the process. On the agenda
Update by Naby Keita
Availability of Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez
Why Liverpool have not kept pace with City this season
Rivalry between City and Liverpool
Liverpool’s card allocation reduction