Liverpool have once again been hit with defensive injuries with Ozan Kabak out of tonight’s Premier League clash with Manchester United.
The defender sat out Saturday’s 2-0 win over Southampton with what Jurgen Klopp described as a “minor issue”, leaving Rhys Williams to partner Nat Phillips at the heart of the defence.
However, Klopp will be without Kabak along with midfielders James Milner and Naby Keita, as none of the trio have recovered from the knocks which kept them out against the Saints.
Klopp has expressed his confidence in fielding the relatively-inexperienced central-defensive partnership of Phillips and Williams, who kept a clean sheet against Saints.
Captain Jordan Henderson will not play for the club again this season as he continues his comeback from groin surgery.
Klopp’s opposite number, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, is facing all sorts of selection dilemmas, with the rearrangement of this game after it was postponed because of fan protests earlier this month meaning it now falls at the end of a run of three games in five days for United.
Liverpool, by contrast, have not played since Saturday evening, and Klopp is therefore likely to go full-strength as his side look to keep alive their hopes of finishing in the Champions League places.
Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez remain long-term absentees, while Jordan Henderson is also yet to return and faces a race to prove his fitness in time for this summer’s European Championships.
Confirmed teams
Manchester United XI: Henderson, Wan Bissaka, Bailly, Lindelof, Shaw, McTominay, Fred, Rashford, Bruno Fernandes, Pogba, Cavani
Subs: De Gea, Mata, Greenwood, Diallo, Alex Telles, Matic, Williams, van de Beek, Tuanzebe
Liverpool XI: Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Phillips, Rhys Williams, Robertson, Wijnaldum, Fabinho, Thiago, Salah, Firmino, Jota
Subs: Mane, Adrian, Jones, Tsimikas, Shaqiri, Origi, Woodburn, Kelleher, Neco Williams
Liverpool provisional squad: Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, R Williams, Phillips, Robertson, Fabinho, Wijnaldum, Thiago, Salah, Firmino, Mane, Adrian, N Williams, Koumetio, Tsimikas, Jones, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Jota, Shaqiri, Woodburn.
Injury list: Henderson, Milner, Van Dijk, Keita, Davies, Matip, Gomez, Kabak, Kelleher, Origi
