Jurgen Klopp appears to have confirmed Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino will return to the side for Wednesday’s visit to Stoke, admitting it is “not completely unlikely” that the pair will start.
The German caused a stir by resting the duo, who had both netted against Sevilla a few days earlier, for Saturday’s blockbuster clash with Chelsea.
Mane was introduced with five minutes remaining, while Firmino was forced to watch the 1-1 draw from the sidelines.
However, the duo will likely come back into the team against the Potters, potentially at the expense of Daniel Sturridge and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
“Probably, but they’re not the only two!” Klopp said when asked if they would start.
“We had to make a few changes [against Chelsea], it makes absolute sense in this part of the season to use the strength of the squad, that means if you involve players you have to leave a few others out and that’s what we did.
“But it’s not completely unlikely that they will start.”
However, the manager maintains that there will be rotation as the Reds near the congested festive period.
“Probably we will make one or two changes from the last game to the next game, then maybe not for the next game – we will see how we deal with that,” he explained.
“It all depends on the impression I can get during the games and during the session, then we make decisions.”
Elsewhere, Emre Can is back in contention after recovering from a knock against Sevilla, but question marks remain over the fitness of Dejan Lovren.
“Dejan probably will be close,” he said. It is not a big thing; it’s a little bit of little bit of swelling and we have to figure out what it is exactly.
“He will try to run in a few minutes, I spoke to him a second ago.
“Emre is back, it was not a big thing but it was big enough that he could not play the last game. He is back and it is a full squad, for sure.”
