Liverpool play their first Premier League game of the 2018-19 season on Sunday when they take on Manuel Pellegrini’s West Ham United at Anfield.
The Reds finished fourth on the league table last season with 75 points but a large number of people expect Jurgen Klopp’s side to give a tough challenge to Man City this time around.
But by the looks of it, Liverpool have a mountain to climb in their very first Premier League game.
Liverpool had a number of players who played in the recently concluded World Cup and this has seriously impacted Jurgen Klopp’s selection process for Sunday’s clash.
The first major absentee is centre-back Dejan Lovren who featured for Croatia in the World Cup, while the likes of Joel Matip and Ragnar Klavan are also carrying injuries and are serious doubts for the West Ham game.
Summer signing Fabinho has fallen ill and is reportedly not fit to play Sunday’s season opener at Anfield.
Talking about Fabinho’s injury and illness, Klopp said: “The scan was clear. It was only a check-up and the scan was clear, but he felt ill when he came back so we sent him home again,”
One. More. Day. 👊
The Reds are coming. ⚡ pic.twitter.com/9lX4aKFH9Y
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) August 11, 2018
Joe Gomez also picked up a knock before Liverpool’s final pre-season game and while Klopp has maintained that the injury is not very serious but his participation against West Ham still remains doubtful.
“Ragnar, no real chance, he didn’t train. Joel did yesterday parts of training like Joe did – we will see how they are today,” Klopp said during the pre-match conference.
Manuel Pellegrini, on the other hand, has a very well balanced squad going into the game and other than a couple of long-term absentees, the new Hammers boss has nothing much to worry about.
Even without all these players, Liverpool remain a huge threat going up but Pellegrini will know that if his players can push forward then they will have every opportunity to breach the Reds’ guard wall.
Read: Former Liverpool legend and current manager had a message for the Reds before they start their Premier League campaign.
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