Virgil van Dijk is an injury worry for Liverpool ahead of their Premier League match against Tottenham on Sunday.
Liverpool are hoping to turn around their poor form when the host out-of-form Spurs at Anfield this weekend. The Reds’ season has fallen apart in the past few weeks, with defeat by Atalanta in the Europa League being followed by a Merseyside derby loss which effectively ended their Premier League title challenge.
They enter the weekend five points behind leaders Arsenal and four off defending champions Manchester City, who still have a game in hand. It might be a good time to play Spurs, who have themselves lost three league matches in succession, but things could be made harder by the absence of Van Dijk.
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The Liverpool captain did not train with the group on Thursday and, speaking in his pre-match press conference on Friday morning, Jurgen Klopp said: "Diogo [Jota] is not in team training yet, Conor Bradley is, Virgil wasn’t. No, [he will] probably be part of team training today, so we will have to see what we can do there. That is it."
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Van Dijk has been a near-ever present for Liverpool in the Premier League this season, with his only absences coming in September due to suspension after a red card at Newcastle. If he does miss the Spurs game, then Ibrahima Konate is likely to partner Jarell Quansah in central defence.
Mohamed Salah could return to the Liverpool starting XI, despite being involved in an angry confrontation with Klopp on the sidelines at West Ham. Salah has been benched for two of Liverpool’s last three matches due to a dip in form, but Klopp has insisted the two have patched things up, describing the incident as “completely resolved”.
Virgil van Dijk could miss the Tottenham match (Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)HAVE YOUR SAY! What is your prediction for Liverpool vs Tottenham? Comment below.
Klopp will try and transmit confidence back into his players following a tough run. "[Improving confidence] is the challenge,” he said. “It is always after the game immediately. The emotions settle step by step, either the good ones, you are not flying anymore if you won 4-0 or the other way around, you aren't down too much if you lost the game or missed the target.
"The reality check is the next situation and then in training getting confidence back and the flow back is for all human beings the biggest challenge in our life.
"On our best days we are great and others we are not, the only difference for footballers is they constantly have a camera in front of their face while they are in difficult spells.
"We will try again and you don't [improve] by pointing the finger in all the time and saying 'that is not good enough, that is not good enough.' You try and offer things where they can develop naturally and that is what we try to do again, giving the boys the necessary information again. You only can enjoy football when they win and that means you have to defend them properly and build on that, that is it."
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