Liverpool welcome burnley for the first time in over a month as diogo jota is part of the liverpool squad. Jota suffered a hamstring injury in the 1-1 draw with manchester city on november 25 and hasn’t played since. In his pre-match press conference, klopp hoped not to rule out the portugal international prematurely, and his zeal has been rewarded by the forward’s fitness to play on turf moor. Darwin nunez returns to the bench alongside luis diaz on boxing day as one of five changes from the team that drew 1-1 against arsenal on december 23.
Diaz was forced off the subs’ bench in the second half and is only fit enough to play this evening, with nunez expected to play on the left side of the front three alongside cody gakpo and mohamed salah. Despite his excellent showing against arsenal, ibrahima konate is rested for the match as liverpool look to move to the top of the premier league with vincent kompany’s side, with jarell quansah replacing kostas tsimikas. klopp is now without both senior left-sided full-backs due to injury. Tsimikas suffered a fractured collarbone against arsenal, allowing him to play alongside andy robertson, who had shoulder surgery in october.
In midfield, Harvey Elliott comes in for Dominik Szoboszlai as Ryan Gravenberch is selected ahead of Curtis Jones while Wataru Endo continues to patrol the base of the engine room.
Liverpool: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Quansah, Van Dijk, Gomez; Endo, Gravenberch, Elliott; Salah, Gakpo, Nunez.
Subs: Kelleher, Diaz, Jones, Konate, Szoboszlai, Jota, Chambers, Bradley, McConnell.
