Jurgen Klopp has confirmed that he will need to make changes to his Liverpool team ahead of the clash against Chelsea.
The Reds travel to Stamford Bridge on Tuesday night to face Chelsea in their next Premier League clash. It sees Liverpool go to the capital for their rearranged fixture that was originally scheduled to be played last September.
Liverpool were beaten 4-1 by Manchester City in their last fixture, and were without some of their key players. Luis Diaz, Thiago Alcantara and Naby Keita were all absent from the clash at the Etihad Stadium.
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Diaz has been sidelined with a knee injury since October, but has since returned to light training. Thiago has been out with a hip flexor injury since the start of February, and has gradually been building up his fitness in recent weeks. Keita suffered a muscle injury while on international duty with Guinea.
Klopp confirmed that both Diaz and Thiago are not yet ready to be available for selection after their injury lay-offs. The German also stated that changes will need to be made after the quick turnaround from facing Man City on Saturday.
“Games like this have an impact, you might lose even more confidence but the desire to show a reaction is there as well," said Klopp, in his press conference on Monday.
“The boys want to show a reaction, but the short turnaround is the problem. In this moment I have no clue who I can line up, because I get this information after the press conference.
“We want to wait with these decisions as long as possible and give the boys as much time to recover.
“There will be changes, definitely, there have to be and we have to use them.”
On Diaz's current fitness levels, Klopp said: “As much as we want him to be back, we still have to give him time. Obviously it was long ago he had the initial injury
“But when he came back to training in Dubai he looked outstanding, until he got injured again. So we have to make sure that we are patient.
“I wouldn’t say (against) Arsenal is completely out of the picture, but it’s rather unlikely. But after that, Luis will be back.
“We had Thiago back yesterday (Sunday) in normal team training which is good as well, but he is not available for tomorrow (vs Chelsea), so we will see how he reacts.”
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