Liverpool boss Jürgen Klopp has big decisions to make ahead of the Europa League round of 16 clash with Sparta Prague on Thursday, with the crunch game against Manchester City looming on the horizon.
Klopp vowed to take the Europa League seriously this season and he’s done that to a large extent, with the German fielding a mix of youth and experience throughout the competition, and this has seen Liverpool sail through the group stage and into the knockout rounds.
Now, however, things could get tricky. Due to Liverpool’s deepening injury crisis, Klopp isn’t in a position to rotate as much as he would generally like. Liverpool faces arguably the biggest game of the season against City on Sunday and Klopp knows a defeat against Pep Guardiola’s men would deal a huge blow to his chances of leaving Anfield at the end of the campaign with another league title.
Darwin Núñez returned to action last weekend and made a vital impact in the slender 1-0 win against Nottingham Forest, with the South American scoring a 99th minute winner that kept Liverpool at the top of the table. Mohamed Salah is still labeled as ‘touch and go’, with the hope that the Egyptian could return to training with a view to featuring against City on Sunday, but his involvement is unclear as of yet.
Speaking of Salah last week before the game against Forest, Klopp said: “I think next week, at any point, it is possible. So he is on the way back, definitely, but not there yet.” If Salah is to return, he almost certainly won’t be risked from the start for Sparta Prague.
Klopp will likely have to turn to many of his youth academy players, who have filled in the void left by so many injuries to established first team players, for the Sparta Prague clash. Conor Bradley, Jayden Danns, Bobby Clark, Lewis Koumas and James McConnell could all feature to some degree, gaining valuable European experience at such tender ages will do their careers no harm.
Therefore, there could only be a handful of changes by Klopp from the side that beat Forest in the final minute at the City Ground. However Dominik Szoboszlai could be given a start to build up minutes in his legs ahead of the City game after a lengthy time out through injury.
Wataru Endō also returned in that match and could hand Alexis Mac Allister a much-needed rest while Jarrell Quansah has been a regular in the Europa League this season and may come in in, as could Kostas Tsimikas at left-back.
Possible Liverpool XI: Kelleher; Bradley, Quansah, Van Dijk, Tsimikas; Endō, Clark, Szoboszlai; Díaz, Elliott, Gakpo.
