Klopp hints at his Liverpool team to face Manchester City this weekend, only one position unclear – RTK View

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Jurgen Klopp appeared to hint at his Liverpool team to face Manchester City on Saturday. The Reds’ boss rotated against Benfica.

Liverpool saw off Benfica on Wednesday evening, drawing 3-3 at Anfield to secure a 6-4 aggregate win. It was a fairly routine game for the Reds, given they carried a 3-1 lead from the first leg.

Jurgen Klopp certainly took advantage of that to rotate his team heavily. He made seven changes from the team that started against Manchester City on Sunday and that’s pretty notable.

Liverpool face City again on Saturday, after all, in an FA Cup semi-final. Asking players to play in both of those fixtures and against Benfica was always a big ask. The Champions League fixture, though, was always going to be the third priority, what with that aggregate lead.

Thus we think Klopp hinted at his Liverpool team to play on Saturday with how he managed his team against Benfica.

Liverpool vs Manchester City

Klopp left nearly every starter from the weekend on the bench. Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Andy Robertson, Thiago, Fabinho, Sadio Mané and Mohamed Salah all dropped out of the Liverpool XI.

Only Alisson Becker, Joel Matip, Jordan Henderson and Diogo Jota retained their place. Both the latter two came off before the hour mark as Liverpool made changes, however.

And so it certainly appears that Klopp will go with the same XI as he did on Sunday. The Reds were careful not to play anyone who started at the weekend for more than an hour. Several didn’t play at all and a few got half an hour. It’s worth mentioning that Henderson and Jota both came off early at the Eithad, too.

It means that there’s only really one position with doubt for Liverpool – centre-back. Van Dijk will be one, of course, but all three of Joel Matip, Ibrahima Konate and Joe Gomez played the full 90 last night.

One of them will partner the Dutchman but it’s unclear who. We’d be surprised if it were Matip, in all honesty, as he’s the least likely to regain fitness by the weekend. At the same time, he’s generally the preferred choice alongside Van Dijk.

10 of the 11 appear set, though, and it’ll look awfully similar to Sunday.