MatchLeicester City v Liverpool: Team news
Liverpool will again be without Roberto Firmino and Naby Keita when they take on Leicester City on Monday night.
The Reds journey to King Power Stadium seeking a seventh successive Premier League victory but injured pair Firmino and Keita will not be part of their matchday squad, along with Thiago Alcantara, Stefan Bajcetic and Calvin Ramsay, who are all out for the remainder of the season.
On whether Firmino and Keita are available, Jürgen Klopp said on Friday: “No, they were not in team training yet.
“I saw Bobby in training yesterday and it looks like pretty much [he is] nearly there, but I don’t think he will be in for the weekend. If I go out of here and he will be in the session, I would be surprised. I assume that we start with him team training-wise after the Leicester game. And Naby, no.”
Following a hectic run of five games in two weeks, Klopp – who reported no fresh fitness concerns during his pre-match press conference – has enjoyed the rarity of an eight-day gap between the win over Brentford and Monday’s meeting with the Foxes.
“When you have it, you have to use it and that’s what we try,” the manager stated, of the opportunity for more sessions at the AXA Training Centre.
“Now we have time again and that’s what we try to use obviously. I want to see that we trained the full week together, I want to see that in the next week, I want to see little changes, I want to see improvement, that’s true.
“For that, we have to do the right stuff in training and so far this week I’m pretty confident we did that. That doesn’t mean we will just fly over the Leicester team, no, we have to be ready for a proper fight. But in decisive moments we need to have common solutions and that’s what we are working on.”
Leicester’s Ricardo Pereira has returned to full training following a hamstring issue, while Kelechi Iheanacho remains sidelined with a groin injury.
Manager Dean Smith told the media on Friday that he expects to have the same squad available as last Monday’s 5-3 defeat at Craven Cottage.
“Nobody’s come out from the squad [against Fulham],” Smith said. “Ricky [Pereira] is back in full training so we are as we were really.
“[Iheanacho is] due to train earlier next week rather than later. We thought he’d only have a two-day build-up for the Newcastle game, but he’s ahead of schedule, which is a big positive for us.”
Ryan Bertrand, James Justin and Jannik Vestergaard are long-term absentees.
Last match
Fulham 5-3 Leicester (May 8): Iversen, Castagne, Faes, Soyuncu, Kristiansen, Tielemans, Soumare, Praet, Maddison, Barnes, Vardy.
Liverpool 1-0 Brentford (May 6): Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Konate, Van Dijk, Robertson, Fabinho, Jones, Gakpo, Jota, Salah, Nunez.
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