It is looking like Liverpool FC will be without both Ibrahima Konate and Virgil van Dijk when they welcome in Aston Villa to Anfield Road this weekend. Yes, Jurgen Klopp is most likely going to be sans his first choice center back pairing, for very different reasons, when the Reds host the Villans for a Sunday afternoon matinee fixture.
With Van Dijk, he’s already suspended for this match, due to his red card at Newcastle last Sunday, but it looks like the FA is going to slap him with another match on top of that. We covered this in more detail in at this post.
Aston Villa at Liverpool FC FYIs
Kickoff: Sun. Sept. 3 2pm, Anfield, Liverpool, UK
Liverpool Preview Content: Starting XI Prediction Team News
Transatlantic Passage: How the Premier League Redefined Soccer in America: LINK
PL Position, Form: Liverpool 4th, 7 pts, WWD Aston Villa 7th, 6pts, WWL
Google Result Probability: Liverpool 58% Draw 21% Aston Villa 21%
Team News for Both Sides
With Konate, the issue is a muscular injury that he picked up before the thrilling come-from-behind win over the Magpies last weekend. Konate is a major doubt at best, having missed out entirely last weekend. Two more injury absentees from last time out, Curtis Jones and Thiago Alcantara, are both on the road to recovery, but this match may come too soon for them. You may not see them in action until after the internationals.
The same could be said for Stefan Bajcetic, who was fit enough to make the bench last time out, but didn’t feature. Does he make a cameo here? Or will his next minutes have to wait until after the internationals?
Switching over to the visitors, they have a host of injury absentees, including Alex Moreno, Jacob Ramsey and good ol’ friend Philippe Coutinho. Yes, it is a reunion with the Brazilian winger whose sale to FC Barcelona five years ago netted the Merseyside such a very nice cash infusion.
Elsewhere Tyrone Mings, Leander Dendoncker and Emi Buendia remain out as long term injury absentees.
Finally, Argentinian goalkeeper Emi Martinez is a doubt after getting substituted off last week.
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
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