Unsurprisingly, there are several high-profile absentees from the Liverpool squad to face Union Saint-Gilloise in the Europa League on Thursday.
The club’s official website confirmed the 23-man travelling party which flew out from John Lennon Airport this afternoon, with Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Mo Salah and Alisson Becker all left at home to prepare for the Premier League showdown against Manchester United on Sunday.
With the Reds already assured of topping the group, Jurgen Klopp has sensibly given a rest to that quartet, although there are still some prominent senior names included such as Dominik Szoboszlai, Darwin Nunez and Cody Gakpo.
As expected, a number of under-21 players have travelled to Belgium, with Marcelo Pitaluga, Fabian Mrozek, Tom Hill, Lewis Koumas, Kaide Gordon, Calum Scanlon, James McConnell, Ben Doak, Conor Bradley and Luke Chambers among those hoping for a rare first-team opportunity tomorrow.
READ MORE: Liverpool prepared to loan out ‘excellent’ prodigy in January; he’s a man in demand
The Champions League game against Midtjylland in December 2020 – which carried similar circumstances in terms of Liverpool having already won their group – has been mentioned abundantly in the lead-up to Thursday’s clash against Union SG.
Klopp foolishly played an in-form Diogo Jota that night and would live to regret the decision as the Portugal winger suffered a wholly preventable three-month injury layoff, during which the Reds’ season collapsed horribly.
LFC have eight fixtures in total this month, with tomorrow’s game the first of five in 13 days, so to have fielded key players in Salah, Trent, Alisson and Van Dijk for a match where the result is of no consequence would’ve been downright daft and asking for trouble.
Thankfully, it seems as if the Liverpool manager has learned from what happened in Denmark three years ago, and it’ll be a welcome sight to have numerous youngsters in the team against Union SG.
The likes of Doak, Bradley, Chambers and Gordon will all want to make a statement to Klopp by putting their hand up for further inclusion with strong performances in Belgium.
It also looks as if some more established first-team players might feature. If so, fingers crossed they don’t suffer any knocks which’d preclude them from games where there’d be a much greater need for them to be available.
📖 Anfield Annals: John Smith – Liverpool’s Red Knight and Most Successful Chairman
That’s 7 fewer than I was hoping for but it’s a start.
Haha I’d nearly have brought back Voronin, Diao and Konchesky for a one-off!!
It’s ridiculous taking any first teamers, I hope he doesn’t play Kelleher either.
Some people never learn.
Great Idea
Good decision from the gaffer. Giving the youngsters a chance to prove themselves. Thumbs up