Jurgen Klopp has hinted that Liverpool will persist with a rookie defensive pairing against Wolverhampton Wanderers on Monday.
Jurgen Klopp said “We all hope they will be ready to start pre-season with us, that’s what we all hope. With Joel it is pretty much the same. These are really serious injuries and it is now not about talking about which competition they play. As far as I know – and I am always open for positive surprises and they all of a sudden turn up in team training but no-one told me that. The two of them (Van Dijk and Gomez) look better than Joel as he is still in what looks like ski boots. Joe is not running. Virgil is already running but this is a real tough one. We will be completely over the moon when they are ready to train with us for the start of pre-season but the Euros I didn’t think about it.”
Klopp has used various partnerships at centre-back this season but he appears to have settled on Nat Phillips and Ozan Kabak for the time being. The pair started Liverpool’s 2-0 Champions League win over RB Leipzig last week and Klopp has all but confirmed they will play at Molineux.
Jurgen Klopp said: “It looked really good. If they are physically ready to go again then why should we change it? That’s clear. You want to have consistency and we never had it [this season]. Hopefully they can play a lot of games, if not all of the rest.”
In other injury news for Liverpool, Klopp is hopeful that Brazilian striker Roberto Firmino – who scored the winner at Molineux last season – will be able to return from a knee injury to face Wolves.
Jurgen Klopp said “Bobby was not with us and couldn’t play. But now we have had a few more days. We have the medical meeting actually after the press conference – sorry! They will give me more information about that. We will see. Two more days. Hopefully.”
