Liverpool take on Manchester City in the Premier League on Sunday and they go into this game without Trent Alexander-Arnold. TAA is out with a muscle injury and Jurgen Klopp has confirmed that the England international is not going to be fit in time.
After a dull 2020/21 season, TAA had finally managed to turn things around this campaign so this injury comes at the worst possible time. But looking at the grander scheme of things, the Liverpool boss really needs to put his thinking cap on when selecting his right-back against Man City.
“We all know Millie is a really special, special guy. He hates the position, pretty much – but for that, he plays not bad!” Klopp told Liverpoolfc.com on Thursday.
“But we have obviously Joe [Gomez] as well an option, Neco [Williams] is back now after injury and all these kind of things. I didn’t really think so far about the line-up. We have important sessions.
“Today was only second-day recovery for the boys who played at Porto, so tomorrow and the day after tomorrow will be really important to just get a feeling who is in the best shape, who can face City.
“Now, when I go home obviously, we do the analysis about City. We played them quite often but anyway you need to have a look if they changed something or not, and if they didn’t change, how they do it in the moment. It’s always interesting.
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“I like when I have a little bit of time to prepare it; if you play Wednesday and Saturday, for example, it’s just recovery and go again. Now we have these two days more, which is really good – for both teams obviously – and let’s give it a go.”
TAA injury: Who will replace Alexander-Arnold vs Man City?
Neco Williams is available to Jurgen Klopp but we don’t think the manager will want to throw in the youngster against a team like Manchester City.
Joe Gomez can also do a good enough job at right-back but the central defender has seen very little game time this season so it will not be the wisest idea to field him against someone like Jack Grealish or maybe Raheem Sterling.
Jack Grealish looked exhausted against PSG in midweek but Pep Guardiola is likely to stick with his summer signing on Sunday meaning James Milner is perhaps the safest choice to replace TAA on the right-hand side of defence.
Milner is not the paciest amongst the Liverpool players but if the experienced pro can get some support from players like Mo Salah, the 35-year-old should be able to do a decent job.
