This is how Jürgen Klopp must change his starting eleven for Liverpool’s third-round FA Cup match against Arsenal: at least three changes must be made.
Wataru Endo, Mohamed Salah, and Dominik Szoboszlai will not be able to play in Sunday’s game at Emirates Stadium because Endo and Salah are on international business and Szoboszlai hurt his hamstring in Monday’s 4-2 win over Newcastle United.
Klopp confirmed at his pre-match news conference on Friday morning that the Reds’ No. 8 will miss at least two games: the trip to Arsenal and next Wednesday’s first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final against Fulham.
“I can confirm that it is an injury and not a possible injury.” The leg muscle. “But now we have to wait and see,” the boss told Szoboszlai.
“Dom is very happy and doesn’t hurt much, but we need to wait a little while longer.” That means there is no chance for Sunday or Wednesday. No.
“Then we’ll see. Maybe he’ll be back after that, but we don’t know.”
Klopp also said that none of his players had been hurt recently. Stefan Bajcetic, Thiago Alcantara, Ben Doak, Joel Matip, Andy Robertson, and Kostas Tsimikas have been out for a long time.
“Other than Szoboszlai getting hurt, nothing else really happened,” he said.
“The rest were free and healthy yesterday, so let’s hope that’s still the case today. We’ll have to make a decision.”
Also, Arsenal’s Oleksandr Zinchenko will be checked out before the game because he hurt his calf last Sunday and couldn’t play in their 2-1 loss at Craven Cottage.
“He is making good progress. As of tomorrow, we will have another training session and see if he is ready to play and start the game, Mikel Arteta told the media on Friday.
Mohamed Elneny and Takehiro Tomiyasu can’t play because they are with Salah and Endo, who are with Egypt and Japan, respectively. Fabio Vieira, Thomas Partey, and Jurrien Timber are also hurt and can’t play.
Arteta said, “We will see on Sunday; I can’t give you the line-up right now.” He was asked which goalie he would choose.