Liverpool take on Burnley in their second match of the new Premier League season and we could see some midfield reshuffle on Saturday.
During the 3-0 win over Norwich City, Klopp used the trio of Oxlade-Chamberlain, Naby Keita and James Milner in midfield. But if the manager’s words are anything to go by then all three of them could be moving back to the bench.
Firstly, the Liverpool boss has said that while Naby Keita and Oxlade-Chamberlain are valuable members of the first-team squad, but there’s no guarantee they will be playing week-in-week-out.
The manager said in his press conference: “It’s all about being available and using the momentum and stuff like this, that’s football. It doesn’t make you a worse player or whatever.
“So we have to be really on top of that, that we try to keep them really in the best possible shape, stuff like this. But the quality of the players was never in doubt.
“But there are obviously a lot of good football players in our squad and we will change independent of performances in the last game, just for intensity reasons, but that’s obviously now a little bit early.”
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And to drop another major hint, the Liverpool boss has claimed that both Jordan Henderson and Thiago are fully fit and raring to go and the final decision of their selection now lies with him.
The manager said: “They are much closer, yes. They look fine, now we have to make the decision.
“They looked really good in the game and looked good in the training week, so it’s up to me to make some decisions.”
Fabinho came off the bench in the Norwich City game but the midfielder has lost his father earlier this week. So there’s still doubt over his selection for the Burnley game.
By the looks of it, Jordan Henderson and Thiago are both going to return to the starting line-up on Saturday against Burnley and if Fabinho is not playing then Naby Keita might get to keep his place in the side.
UPDATE:
The latest reports have confirmed that Fabinho will Liverpool’s clash with Burnley.
