Liverpool FC are heading down the home stretch of the season with a player roster that’s at near full fitness. Reds boss Jurgen Klopp will have all his selection options available for the run in, as the Merseyside club looks to end their long league title drought. Up next is a league fixture at Cardiff City.
Dejan Lovren missed out on the midweek win at Porto due to an illness, but Klopp said today that the central defender is feeling well again. Another defender, Joe Gomez, is back after spending the last four months on the sidelines and midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who has yet to feature in 2018-19, is good to go as well.
“Dejan was ill so he should be available again, we will see that,” said Klopp at his prematch news conference on Friday. “Pretty much all the rest should be available, I heard nothing after the Porto game. Always after games a few players have slight, little problems but nothing really serious – so it should be OK, should be all in.”
There are no additional injury concerns to be concerned with, so whether or not the trio see action depends on the managerial decision.
“Joe looked good. Joe played 60 minutes during the week [for the U23s] and now 20 roundabout. It looks good,” Klopp continued.
“If he will start, we will see; we have a lot of players with a lot of rhythm, which is good, but it’s good to have him. It’s very important.
“It’s the same for Ox, it’s not about being ready and then you come in immediately, because as long as the other players show no drop in form in training, we came here [to this point] like this.
“But it’s very good to have them back and have them in contention.”
Flipping over to the home side, they will likely be without the services of Callum Paterson, Matthew Connolly and Sol Bamba.
Liverpool FC at Cardiff City FYIs
Kick-off: Sunday April 21, Cardiff City Stadium, 2pm
Liverpool starting XI Prediction: go to this link
Match official: Martin Atkinson
Form Guide: Liverpool WWWWW Cardiff City WLLLW
Google Result Probability: Liverpool 80% Draw 14% Cardiff City 6%
Odds via 888 Sport: Liverpool 1/5, Draw 11/2, Cardiff City 14/1
Prediction: Liverpool 2, Cardiff City 0
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, regularly appears as a guest pundit on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
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