LAST UPDATE | 23 Feb
CAOIMHÍN KELLEHER LOOKS set to start in Liverpool’s League Cup final with Chelsea at Wembley on Sunday, with Alisson Becker set to be ruled out for over a month with a muscle injury.
The Reds could yet be handed better news regarding key trio Mohamed Salah, Darwin Nunez and Dominik Szoboszlai, all of whom are in contention to play after sitting out Wednesday’s 4-1 victory over Luton at Anfield.
Alisson, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Joel Matip, Thiago Alcantara, Curtis Jones and Diogo Jota have definitively been ruled out of Sunday’s final as Liverpool aim to win the first of a potential quadruple of trophies in Jurgen Klopp’s final season.
Alisson’s fitness is of ongoing consequence to Republic of Ireland international Kelleher, whose run of three consecutive starts in Liverpool’s goal looks set to continue for the foreseeable future.
Klopp’s assistant Pep Lijnders told Friday’s pre-match press conference that Alisson’s injury “will really take time” and is likely to keep him out until after the next international break, meaning that Cork man Kelleher will have the opportunity to deputise for the Brazilian until the end of March at the earliest.
“Dom, Darwin and Mo we have to really see,” Lijnders added of Szoboszlai, Nunez and Salah. “We have two more days — today’s session and tomorrow’s session — and last minute, we will check if they can be there.”
Liverpool hammered Chelsea 4-1 in the Premier League less than a month ago but Lijnders is wary of the Blues, due to the improvements they have made since then.
Chelsea are 10th in the Premier League table after a difficult start to Mauricio Pochettino’s reign but did Liverpool a favour in the title race by holding Manchester City to a 1-1 draw last week.
Lijnders believes the Argentine is beginning to find the right balance from a squad full of young talent that has cost more than £1 billion (€1.2bn) in transfer fees over the past two years.
“We will need our full toolbox,” said Lijnders. “Chelsea, I think the instability that happened in the beginning of the season, a lot happened there — a lot.
“So how can you expect them to perform straight away? They are growing, I think their manager is doing an unbelievable job.”
Klopp is in line to round off his glorious spell at Anfield in style.
The Reds could match Manchester United’s record of 20 English top-flight league titles and are also into the last 16 of both the FA Cup and Europa League.
Lijnders will leave the club at the end of the season to launch his own managerial career and he is aiming to go out on a high by giving the Liverpool support plenty to cheer.
“We are going to prepare with only one target — giving joy and emotions to the fans. If you want to describe our football philosophy it is to give joy and emotions to the fans.”
Since Klopp broke the bombshell news of his departure a month ago, his team have won five of their six games.
Virgil van Dijk will captain the Reds on Sunday and said focusing on the job in hand rather than what is to come has been key to remaining on track.
“The end of the season will be probably very emotional for a lot of people, including the manager, but we are not there yet,” the defender told the Liverpool website.
“We shouldn’t look too far ahead, we should look at what is in front of us and that’s what we want to do.”
