Liverpool target Manchester United game for goalkeeper Alisson’s return
Jürgen Klopp has allayed Liverpool concerns that Alisson faces a lengthy spell out of action and hopes the influential goalkeeper will be fit to face Manchester United on 17 December.
Liverpool feared an extended layoff for their first-choice keeper after he sustained a hamstring injury late in the 1-1 draw at Manchester City on Saturday. However, scans have shown the damage is not severe and Alisson could be out for just over a fortnight.
With Caoimhín Kelleher the preferred starter for Europa League games, and Liverpool facing Lask on Thursday and Union Saint-Gilloise on 14 December, the Brazil international is likely to miss Premier League matches against Fulham, Sheffield United and Crystal Palace before returning for United’s visit to Anfield.
Klopp, who also lost Diogo Jota to a hamstring injury against City, said: “Both are out [of the Lask game]. With Ali it’s a bit lesser so we have to see – not day by day, he will not play tomorrow, not on Sunday and probably not the week after. Then it should be kind of OK. Diogo will take a little bit longer.
We don’t know exactly how long, but it’s a bit more severe.”
Liverpool lost their last Europa
League fixture, 3-2 in Toulouse, but will win Group E on Thursday if they defeat the Austrian side and Toulouse do not beat Union SG. Klopp’s team would secure a place in the top two by avoiding defeat against Lask, and the Liverpool manager wants qualification confirmed with a game to spare.
“I didn’t need that,” Klopp said of the defeat in France. “It just made the situation more difficult, that’s how it is. We want to win tomorrow night and we want to win in Belgium as well, but if we don’t win tomorrow the game in Belgium in a super-intense period will be tough.
“So it’s all about performing tomorrow and really going for it – that’s the idea. To put the opponent under pressure with good pressing and football with top protection and be super-aware around set pieces.
“Toulouse was maybe a one-off performance-wise – it was around Luton which was not too great either – but this was in a very short period of time. Besides that the boys usually perform and that’s what we should concentrate on. In the Europa League it is important whether you are top of the group or second in the group as second goes into a playoff.”