After Liverpool’s 4-1 victory against AC Milan on Friday in Dubai, Jurgen Klopp stated Virgil van Dijk won’t play in the Carabao Cup match against Man City next week, but Trent Alexander-Arnold and Jordan Henderson might.
The Reds defeated the Serie A champions 4-1 to round off their midseason training camp in Dubai, with goals from Mohamed Salah and Thiago in the first half and a brace from Darwin Nunez in the second.
Nunez was one of six players who entered the game just before the 60-minute mark. Adrian, Melkamu Frauendorf, Kostas Tsimikas, Naby Keita, and Carvalho also entered the game at that time, and Matip was soon replaced by Nat Phillips.
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Prior to Liverpool’s return to competitive play, Nunez rejoined the team earlier this week, but five other players are yet to do the same.
Van Dijk, Henderson, Alexander-Arnold, Alisson, and Fabinho are all anticipated to return to Merseyside training next week, although Klopp has disclosed Van Dijk and Henderson have both been working separately in Dubai.
Klopp appeared to rule out the possibility of Van Dijk playing against City when asked if any of them may, despite the fact that the Netherlands captain had played every minute for his nation in Qatar.
“Yeah, there’s a chance, of course – they train already,” Klopp told the media on whether any of the returnees could play against Man City next week.
“Hendo is already training here. Virg is training here but I don’t think we will try that. Hendo we will see, Trent we will see.”
“But this group worked now together for nearly two weeks and we made a real step and that’s cool.”
“I don’t know in this moment. I hope we all get through it and we all know in England, and in Europe in general, there’s kind of a virus going around, so we hope we can stay out of that.”
“Then we will make the decision obviously on Wednesday who can play on Thursday. But it’s good and will be a very interesting game after that period but I’m looking forward to it.”
The players who spent the last 10 days in Dubai have made development, according to Klopp, and he thinks that a lot of that progress was seen in the team’s victory over Milan.
When asked to highlight the aspect of the victory that most delighted him, Klopp responded: “That’s difficult! A lot of things.”
“It was a really good game. There was one situation which I didn’t like – that was when we conceded the goal because it was directly after a drinks break.”
“With the system they played, we avoided pretty much or denied all the switches. In that moment, we didn’t deny the switch and then it was difficult and they could score.”
“Then extra-time in the first half – three, four minutes – it was like we were waiting for the whistle but it was five minutes and they had too much possession there.”
“Apart from that, we were super dominant. We played a really good game.”
“I liked how our midfield was connected, I liked our build-up because they surprised us a little bit with the system – I’m not sure they played it very often but because of their problems what they have with injuries they changed.”
“So building up with three, we needed to adapt a little bit. When we did that, pressing was really good as well.”
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