MatchLiverpool v Tottenham Hotspur: Team news
Ibrahima Konate could return to Liverpool's team against Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday.
The centre-back was rested for the Reds’ victory over West Ham United in midweek and, during Friday morning’s pre-match press conference, Jürgen Klopp confirmed he is available to face Spurs at Anfield.
Diogo Jota sustained a knock to his back at London Stadium but the manager expects the forward to be fit.
When asked for an update on the condition of his squad, Klopp said: “Ibou will be back. I guess Naby [Keita] will train today – I didn’t get the medical report yet, but probably. Ox [Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain] is in training. No-one else [is back].
“We have a couple of players out, everybody knows about them, but on top of that from the last game... Diogo got a bad knock in his back but should be alright, we will see how that developed. Apart from that we should be OK.”
Roberto Firmino remains out with a muscle injury.
Having named an unchanged starting XI for three Premier League games in a row, Konate’s absence on Wednesday night meant Klopp had to make one alteration to his line-up, with replacement Joel Matip ultimately proving the match-winner.
On his reasoning for sticking with a settled side, the boss explained: “So, a couple of things. We didn’t change not because we won the game before, we didn’t change because we set the team up obviously slightly differently and want to give the boys the chance to find some rhythm in that, to get used to it, to get used to different things.
“That’s number one and number two, I said the ticket into this team will always be the readiness, or from now on again, the readiness to defend and to counter-press and I liked a lot of that what I saw and if you say that then you have to give the credit for it as well – so you can buy the ticket again, if you want.
“But I have to say, what it created as well is a situation in training where the boys who didn’t start showed properly up, so we could have changed quite a lot because they really knock on the door, which is good.
“The main difference is we have time to train and if you have time to train, all of a sudden everybody can show up because usually if you say training is as important as the games, yes that’s true but in a normal week with three games you have recovery where only parts of the team, only the guys who didn’t play the day before train.
“The next day is second-day recovery for the boys who played and the other boys do a little bit more, then you have one training day in a long week and that’s not a session which should be that intense.
“So, there are a couple of reasons but l liked big parts of the games, to be honest. Not all of it, of course, against Nottingham [Forest] around the set-pieces, that looked really not cool but how I said after the game it’s difficult to prepare for that because nobody can throw in like Niakhate and nobody in our training session will fight for the ball like Nottingham Forest did – I would want to avoid that otherwise you have injuries after a set-piece in training.
“So, that’s it, that’s the reason, pretty much, why we didn’t change.”
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Watch on YouTubeWatch Klopp's pre-Spurs press conference
Mohamed Salah will reach the landmark of 300 Liverpool appearances in all competitions if he features in the 4.30pm BST kick-off.
Tottenham, meanwhile, will be without Hugo Lloris.
Spurs’ captain and goalkeeper suffered a muscle injury during last weekend’s defeat at Newcastle United and subsequently missed the 2-2 draw with Manchester United on Thursday night.
“Hugo won’t be available for Sunday and the other injuries we’re assessing day by day,” acting head coach Ryan Mason told the media on Friday.
“The lads haven’t trained yet [after Thursday’s game], so we’re going to see how the boys are feeling in terms of training this afternoon and also tomorrow leading into the game on Sunday.”
Rodrigo Bentancur, Yves Bissouma, Emerson Royal and Ryan Sessegnon are out for the visitors.
Last match
West Ham United 1-2 Liverpool (April 26): Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson, Fabinho, Henderson, Jones, Jota, Salah, Gakpo.
Tottenham 2-2 Manchester United (April 27): Forster, Romero, Dier, Lenglet, Porro, Skipp, Hojbjerg, Perisic, Son, Richarlison, Kane.
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