Liverpool travel to face Arsenal on Thursday in the EFL Cup. They’re expected to be without Alisson, Joel Matip and Roberto Firmino, however.
This comes from the Daily Mail. They say that all three of Alisson Becker, Joel Matip and Roberto Firmino will likely miss Arsenal vs Liverpool this week.
The trio returned suspect positive Covid-19 results ahead of the game with Chelsea this weekend. While there’s still a slim chance those results were false, it’s unlikely. Liverpool will almost certainly need to cope without them in the EFL Cup semi-final.
This also carries an extra threat, however – postponement. Liverpool lost three players to AFCON this month, while a continued Covid-19 outbreak puts the game under threat. Any more absences and the Reds have a very good case for calling the game off.
Arsenal v Liverpool
Yes, it’s an EFL Cup game but all three of these first-team players probably would have started this one. Liverpool take on Shrewsbury Town on Sunday and that’s the obvious game in which to rest players.
So these three will be a miss. Especially as Liverpool can’t call on Naby Keita, Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane, either.
This is, after all, a very winnable trophy at this stage and one Liverpool can afford to take seriously – at least in the first leg. We’d like to see a pretty strong XI as a result. It’s shame the strongest XI very much isn’t possible.
In fact, Diogo Jota is now the only senior forward available. Both Divock Origi and Takumi Minamino have been injured lately, with no suggestion they’re ready to start for Liverpool against Arsenal.
It’s safe to say that Firmino is the biggest problem here, then. Caoimhin Kelleher will cover Alisson, while there are enough centre-backs to cover Matip. Up front, though? Liverpool have a problem.
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