Liverpool will travel to the Midlands this afternoon as they return to Premier League action against Wolverhampton Wanderers this afternoon and Jurgen Klopp will be hoping his team can continue their unbeaten run.
The Reds are currently third in the top-flight table after securing 10 points from their first four fixtures of the season and will be looking for another three to add to their tally when they take on Gary O’Neil’s side in the early kick-off.
Liverpool have won 12 of their last 13 Premier League fixtures against Wolves, with the only exception being the 3-0 defeat at Molineux last season, so Klopp will be hoping that the odds will be in his side’s favour.
In terms of injuries, the Liverpool boss has a number of ongoing fitness concerns to tackle as he gave important updates on Trent Alexander-Arnold, Thiago Alcantara and Darwin Nunez during his pre-match press conference on Friday.
On the vice-captain, Klopp revealed:
“He is not available [for Wolves], we knew that before. He didn’t train with the team once yet and will take a little bit. It is not the worst hamstring injury you can have but it’s a hamstring injury and they barely heal in two weeks – and this one didn’t, either.”
On Thiago:
“Thiago is running, but that’s it.”
And, on Nunez:
“I didn’t see him yet, but we obviously had contact and he said it was fine, but we will see that now and make a couple of decisions there. Darwin should be fine.”
The travelling team will also be without Virgil van Dijk who had his initial one-match ban extended further by the FA due to misconduct towards an official, however, Ibrahima Konate could return to action after resuming training over the international break.
How could Liverpool line-up vs Wolves?
We predict that Klopp will be forced to make three changes to his starting eleven who sealed a victory against Aston Villa last month, maintaining the usual 4-3-3 formation.
The first change we expect to see is Cody Gakpo replacing Nunez in the centre-forward role alongside an otherwise unchanged forward line of Mohamed Salah and Luis Diaz.
Whilst the Uruguayan may claim that he is fit to start the clash against Wolves, Klopp should not take any risks on the striker’s fitness and instead, give the nod to Gakpo who has seen his game time limited so far this season.
The midfield trio of Waturo Endo, Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai has been a huge talking point when considering the improvements seen in the squad during the opening weeks of the new season.
Despite Curtis Jones getting the nod against Villa, we predict that the second change will come in the form of Mac Allister who is likely to be the player to replace the scouser on the left side of the midfield three.
The third and final change we expect to see is Konate reprising his role in the centre-back partnership, whilst Joe Gomez moves into the right-back role to cover Alexander-Arnold’s absence.
With that being said, the mounting injury issues will be a concern for Klopp, however, there should be enough quality and depth in the team to comfortably take another victory away from the Molineux this afternoon.
