The Liverpool squad were put through their paces at the AXA Training Centre today prior to flying out to Germany for the Champions League fixture against Eintracht Frankfurt tomorrow night.
Both teams have a win and a loss apiece from their first two matches in the league phase, with the home side losing three of their last five games while scoring 12 goals and conceding 18 in that time.
That puts a somewhat less damning outlook on the Reds’ tally of 17 conceded in 12 matches across all competitions since the start of the season, although Jamie Carragher’s concerns about the rate at which his former club have been shipping goals are valid.
Good and bad news from Liverpool training
There was good and bad news for Liverpool from today’s session in Kirkby ahead of the match at Deutsche Bank Park.
As reported by Theo Squires for the Liverpool Echo, Ryan Gravenberch sat out open training after he twisted his ankle in the defeat to Manchester United on Sunday, with an objective injury analyst indicating that the 23-year-old could be sidelined for six weeks or more, depending on the severity of the issue.
However, Arne Slot will have been encouraged by the participation of Alexis Mac Allister and Wataru Endo. The latter appears to have no adverse effects from the head wound that he incurred at Anfield a couple of days ago, while the Japanese warrior is close to a comeback after a recent hamstring problem.
Who comes in for Gravenberch if he’s not playing tomorrow?
With Gravenberch seemingly likely to miss the game in Frankfurt after sitting out training today, that’d open up a starting berth in Liverpool’s midfield, and the Reds boss won’t be short of options to fill it.
Mac Allister will almost certainly start if he’s cleared to play, and although Endo would be a natural deep-lying option to protect the back four, we can foresee Dominik Szoboszlai dropping deeper to allow for Florian Wirtz to return to the starting XI in the number 10 role.
Curtis Jones is also an option for Slot in the midfield engine room, having given a decent account of himself off the bench in the Man United game, perhaps a timely performance considering the probable absence of our number 38 tomorrow night.
The Liverpool head coach is set to give a more informed team news update when he speaks to the media this evening (scheduled for 6:30pm UK time), and we’ll be keeping our fingers crossed for good news on Gravenberch, although the travelling squad will be confirmed before then.
The 23-year-old will be a loss if he doesn’t make it to Germany, but at least we have a few trusty alternatives to step in if needed.