Jürgen Klopp has confirmed that both Joel Matip and James Milner are unavailable for tonight’s game against Crystal Palace after both sustained injuries in the Merseyside derby.
Milner limped off after around 40 minutes with a slight hamstring injury, but Klopp confirmed it’s nothing too serious, whilst Matip was unable to continue after 75 minutes and had to be replaced by Dejan Lovren.
Milner started the game at left-back, covering for the missing Andy Robertson, but Klopp revealed that Robertson was back in full training and eluded that the defender will be back in the starting XI.
Regarding the injured Robertson and Mo Sarah, Klopp said:
[Mo] trained yesterday completely normal, he will train today completely normal I would guess and then he is available. What I make with the line-up, you have to wait until tomorrow. It is the same with Robbo; he trained yesterday completely normal as well, so it’s the same.
Twitter: Liverpool v Crystal Palace: Team news: Andy Robertson and Mohamed Salah are set to return… https://t.co/Hx56dBeNtx (@LFCNews)
Both Joe Gomez and Dejan Lovren are fit to replace Matip and it will come down to Klopp’s decision on the night as to who will partner Virgil van Dijk.
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Neither injury sounds too serious and we would expect both players to be available for selection again within the coming weeks.
Milner’s injury shouldn’t cause too many problems within the starting XI tonight if Robertson is fit, as expected.
We assume that Klopp will go with Joe Gomez tonight to replace Matip, with the Gomez and Van Dijk partnership arguably being the best pairing in the league.
However, if Robertson isn’t 100%, then we might see Gomez fill in at left-back again with Lovren starting at centre back.
With the possibility of the title being wrapped up by Thursday night, we assume that Klopp will field the strongest XI he can tonight.
