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Liverpool set to miss three first-team players vs Watford: Window of opportunity for Ranieri?

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Thiago Alcantara Liverpool

Liverpool are scheduled to take on Watford in an early kick-off on Saturday and the Anfield outfit will be without some really important players.

Talking to the press, Jurgen Klopp has confirmed that Diogo Jota and Alexander-Arnold are fully fit and ready to play but midfielder Thiago will not be ready for this encounter.

The manager said, as per the club’s official website: “Yes, Trent and Diogo are available, at least they were yesterday.

“Thiago, I don’t know [when he will be available]. It still takes a little bit of time. That’s a bit disappointing but we know that as well for a few days now that it will not go that quick. We have to wait.”

Apart from the Spaniard, youngster Curtis Jones will also be an absentee, the club has confirmed.

The Liverpool boss has also made it clear that Fabinho and Alisson Becker will not make it back in time as Brazil play in the early hours of Friday so he will have to make do without these two players as well.

The manager added: “The problem with this answer is always when somebody writes it that if I use the word frustration then [it’s], ‘Oh my god, Klopp is frustrated about that…’


“I’m not. We have no chance, obviously; somebody decided to give Brazil the opportunity to play last night, so a few hours ago, and somebody made a decision that we have to play on Saturday at 12.30. It is all not in our hands.

“If we say something, it is always the same people saying the same stuff, ‘Yeah, that’s why you have a big squad…’ That’s all clear, but you have a big squad not for issues with football associations because they put in tournaments – five players have to play there, four players have to play there, but then you still have a league game to play.

“So, we’ve known it for a while, we made our decision a while ago, we had to sort quarantine issues and all these kind of things, so the decision we made is the boys will not be here – they will go directly to Madrid, wait there for us and then hopefully be able to play against Atletico. They will come back slightly later than us, 10 days [is] over then and then they can come back and are in our normal procedure again and that’s it.”

Watford are not the strongest of sides so we don’t expect Liverpool to stumble but there’s going to be a midfield void for the Reds which Ranieri’s side could exploit.

With Thiago and Fabinho missing, Jordan Henderson is likely to play in the defensive midfielder’s role while James Milner also comes into the side.

The absence of Curtis Jones means Naby Keita will get a chance to feature in the starting XI and this trio doesn’t particularly ooze confidence. They have hardly played together and if put under pressure, they might start crumbling.

While we do expect Liverpool to get over the line but Watford could pose a few problems for Jurgen Klopp’s side on Saturday.

Read: Klopp reveals how Liverpool have been preparing for Claudio Ranieri’s Watford.

Read: Liverpool receive a double injury boost as they prepare for Watford.

Read: 4-3-3 Liverpool’s predicted line up vs Watford.

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