Jürgen Klopp has said Liverpool will have to wrap Joe Gomez in cotton wool as they deal with a left-back crisis after Kostas Tsimikas’s injury against Arsenal.
Tsimikas is expected to be out for several months having broken a collarbone when pushed over by Bukayo Saka, and into Klopp, during the 1-1 draw at Anfield on Saturday. The Greece international has been deputising for the first-choice left-back Andy Robertson, who has been out since dislocating a shoulder during Scotland’s defeat by Spain on 12 October.
With Robertson unlikely to return until the new year, and only the inexperienced teenagers Luke Chambers and Calum Scanlon as back-up options, Klopp will have to persist with the right-footed Gomez at left-back over the festive period.
The Liverpool manager, whose team travel to Burnley on Boxing Day, said: “Can Joe play all the games now until I don’t know when? Robbo will be back and Kostas will be definitely out for a long while. I don’t know, we’ll have to see. I didn’t have time to think it through yet but it is really tough for us now.
“You have injuries sometimes and you have to accept all of them but a broken collarbone is really bad because it takes so long to heal. Robbo had a different injury but it takes a long time to recover as well. We all know we need luck in these moments and now we have to just make sure we put Joey in cotton wool and make sure he is ready for the game.”
Liverpool may have Diogo Jota back at Turf Moor, although the forward has yet to resume full team training since sustaining an injury at Manchester City last month.
“I don’t want to rule anybody out now – we’ll see,” Klopp said. “We only have one more proper session now so we will see but it would be a surprise. I don’t know. Diogo hasn’t trained with the team but the session I saw was really intense. I didn’t ask the medical department yet.”
Liverpool will face a Burnley team buoyed by an impressive win at Fulham on Saturday and who Klopp believes are in a misleading position second from bottom.
“I don’t need the Burnley result to understand their quality,” Klopp said. “Burnley could have easily had much more points because they had so many good spells in the games where they never saw the situation off, because of young players and some decisions. If they could finish these situations off they would definitely win more games.
“I respect Vinny [Vincent Kompany] a lot because he keeps pushing his idea through. I knew before that they are much better than their position and points show. I’m impressed with what they are doing and we know if you win once and are coming back to your home stadium you want to win again, and that is what we expect from them. It will be a good atmosphere as well so we have to be ready.”
