Jurgen Klopp has confirmed that rotation is the name of the game for Liverpool against AC Milan, and while not keen to give away his XI, Divock Origi “is pretty likely” to start.
The Reds are to play their fourth game in 10 days on Tuesday and after fielding a consistent lineup over the last week, changes were always in the reckoning.
And that Liverpool safely qualified for the last 16 of the Champions League by the conclusion of the fourth game in the group stage only consolidated this fixture as one to inject fresh legs.
Origi is “pretty likely” to start following on from his winning goal at Wolves and he will be one of a number of changes as Liverpool “have to” rotate.
The returning Joe Gomez and Naby Keita, who have missed the last seven games, are unlikely to be in the XI, however, with Klopp hinting their time will come off the bench, if at all.
“We have to see, it’s possible that players [back] from injury have a few minutes. Hopefully,” Klopp told reporters on Monday.
“Can we take them? Can we bring them on? The good thing about the Champions League is that we can change five times, it’s helpful and we will use it. [But] difficult to start if you cannot play 45 minutes.
“We have to rotate, we will rotate,” Klopp stressed. “That’s clear. We ‘have’ to is the headline!
“The medical department would smash me if I played the same side again, so I will make changes!
“If you make changes, you get fresh legs and if you have fresh legs you have higher energy levels.
“The players are understanding of the situation. We want to field the best possible side for the situation we are in.
“We will not give you now the lineup, but I cannot change it all. We need to have players on the pitch!
“We will see if Mo plays or not and if he plays if he can score or not. We want to field the best possible side for the situation we are in.
“We played five games in the last 15 days, which is a lot. And now we have to play the same amount of games in the same amount of time after Milan.”
The manager also added that there will be “young players travelling with us and in the squad,” with Tyler Morton, Conor Bradley and Elijah Dixon-Bonner likely to be among the group after training with the team on Monday.
Finally, Thiago, Diogo Jota and Jordan Henderson were all notably missing from Liverpool’s outdoor session on Monday, suggesting they are due a rest.
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