Jurgen Klopp has explained that all his Liverpool players who are currently in Dubai and are fit will take part in the friendly against Lyon later today.
The Reds are in the Middle East preparing for the return of domestic football on December 22 with several players looking to get a few minutes in the tank after not playing competitively since our win over Southampton last month.
The German strategist has outlined his plans for the clash with the French team.
“We will use all the guys we have here and the guys that are available,” Klopp told LFCTV (via This Is Anfield).
The former Borussia Dortmund boss also discussed when Darwin Nunez will meet his Reds teammates.
The 23-year-old was the first Liverpool star to be knocked out of the World Cup after Uruguay failed to advance from the group stage.
Virgil van Dijk, Alisson Becker, Fabinho, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Jordan Henderson joined the former Benfica striker to be eliminated after their respective nations lost in the quarter-finals.
“The first to join us from the World Cup will be Darwin,” Klopp said. “And then we’ll see who’s available for the second one and then we go home, and a few days later we play Manchester City. So, [it is] exciting.”
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Liverpool will also play AC Milan on Friday and interestingly no matter what the result is at full time during our games in Dubai, penalties will be taken.
Point scoring is also pretty unique during our time in the Gulf nation.
If you win a game within 90 minutes, you’ll get three points, if you then win the ensuing shootout, you’ll get an extra point, while if the game ends in a tie, you’ll get two points.
It’s all a bit confusing, but Klopp was eager to weigh in on the thinking behind the decisions.
“I don’t need it for the Premier League!” said the German.
“But here it was clear, we had an idea for this tournament and then we need to find a way because it doesn’t make sense for us to play three games, it doesn’t make sense for us to play Arsenal, then we had four teams and now we have to play Lyon and AC Milan – Arsenal. He’s doing the same.”
“And if you don’t play all the games, how can we find, in the end, a winner too? So it helps if you give four points instead of three. I think it’s a good idea and now we’ll try it.”
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