“No Chance” – Klopp Confirms Big Injury Blow Ahead Of Liverpool’s FA Cup Clash Against Arsenal

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has revealed that midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai will not play against Arsenal this weekend.

The Hungarian international picked up a hamstring injury during the 4-2 win over Newcastle on Monday and Klopp has said he will not feature in the FA Cup or the first leg of the Carabao Cup tie against Fulham next week:

“I can confirm it’s not a potential injury – it is an injury. Muscle, hamstring. But now we have to see. Dom is very positive, doesn’t have a lot of pain but we have to wait a little bit. So, no chance obviously for Sunday, not for Wednesday. No. And then we will see, after that hopefully, he might be back but we don’t know.”

The Reds replaced Szoboszlai on the hour mark against Newcastle. It was a planned substitution but Klopp said after the game that it came “a minute” too late to stop the 23-year-old from getting injured.

Who will take Szoboszlai’s place for the Arsenal game?

The favourite to come into the starting eleven would be Harvey Elliott. The 20-year-old has been selected to start in most of the domestic cup games and Europa League group fixtures this season.

Alternatively, Ryan Gravenberch could be brought in. The Dutchman’s form has been rather poor in recent weeks but his physicality and lung-bursting runs could be rather useful on the counterattack against the Gunners.

Will Klopp rotate ahead of the Carabao Cup semi-final?

The Liverpool boss does have a tricky decision in regards to team selection. The first leg versus Fulham is on Wednesday night so there is only a 3-day turnaround following the Arsenal match.

Some rotation will be inevitable but Klopp will still want to put out a team capable of winning at the Emirates on Sunday.

Watch a preview of Liverpool’s plans for the January transfer window on Shots!TV here

Shots TV Logo
David Tully

David Tully

David has worked as a football reporter for the last fifteen years. Having started as an intern at Snack Media, he then went on to become a freelancer, working on various different sites. At the start of 2023, he took up his current role as content writer for National World's Football News Network.