Liverpool kick off their Premier League campaign this Sunday when they welcome West Ham United at Anfield.
The Reds have had a good transfer window where they have managed to bring in a number of players including the likes of Xherdan Shaqiri and Naby Keita. But West Ham too are not far behind as the Hammers themselves have spent more than a 100 million pounds on the transfer market under new manager Manuel Pellegrini.
On any other day, almost everyone would have put their bets on Liverpool to come out as the winners but a number of their players are not yet match-fit after returning from the World Cup. And this has surely tipped the balance in favour of the Hammers who feel that they have an opportunity to come back home with all three points.
Liverpool had a number of players who represented their country during the World Cup and most of them have returned back to Melwood this past week. But according to Jurgen Klopp, the one major selection concern for his before Sunday is the inclusion of Jordan Henderson.
The Reds manager has revealed that Henderson looks physically fit for the clash against West Ham but the club will have to wait and see if he is match ready – hinting to the fact that the decision to play him or not will be taken on Sunday.
“We’ll have to see how he reacts but it’s Hendo,” Klopp said.
“In the first session, he looked like he had trained the whole three weeks (he was off). You’d have to ask his wife!
🙌 Our new Reds at Anfield 🤙 pic.twitter.com/yPFR9ac25V
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) August 8, 2018
“He was in a really good shape so we thought a few minutes tonight would be possible. He’s experienced enough to control the game, and he is a very important option.
“I have no clue at the moment what we will do at the weekend. Hendo needs a pre-season but not as much as the others.
“After West Ham, we have eight days to the Crystal Palace game, that’s good for us. Hopefully, they are all fit and I have a few difficult decisions to make.
Another concern amongst the Liverpool fans was the absence of Joe Gomez who was withdrawn from Liverpool’s final pre-season game. But now the manager has revealed that Gomez suffered a minor injury and he would be available for Sunday’s game vs West Ham
“Joe I think is okay for the weekend,
“It was nothing serious, but tonight it was not possible (for him to play). He played on Saturday and now it’s Tuesday. It’s pretty tight.
“Dejan is in, but with not a long holiday. For Raggy and Joel, it’s probably they are not fit for the weekend but we don’t need 12 centre-halves but two at least and one to change would be extremely cool.
“Nat is there, though. I really liked his pre-season. It was really strong and he has improved a lot. We don’t really struggle with centre-halves. They only have little things (wrong with them).
“But if the (West Ham) game had been tonight… we only had two available, and they played.”
Read: ‘These’ two claims will have a Rangers vs Celtic type battle in the Premier League according to Paul Merson.
Read: Former Man United legend predicts who will win the Premier League and why his former team will fail badly this season.
Read: Former Premier League stars reveals the top four for the new season and both the predictions have one thing in common.
Read: Premier League legend reveals ‘which’ club has done the worst business in the summer but they still seem to be perfect.
