Jurgen Klopp sounded out confirmation that Joe Gomez will start in Monday night’s derby game against Manchester United at Old Trafford.
Gomez took full part in training ahead of Jurgen Klopp’s side making the travels to Manchester and the England international is expected to prove his fitness levels for a berth on the team sheet.
The 25-year-old England international did make the XI for Liverpool’s draw against Crystal Palace last time around but came off the bench for a solid 30-minute cameo and is now ready for his first start of the new season, according to Klopp’s pre-match remarks.
Of course it’s an opportunity. But he was now really unlucky last week because he came on, he had only a little thing, only a little thing but I had to make the decision. He only came back to team training the day before the game – Sunday. I said no because we have Nat Phillips in, and I thought Nat played a really good game. I know there are people probably out there, saying, ‘Yeah, but the first goal…’ We have to defend the first goal in another position because there it’s not to defend anymore when the ball is played, the last pass. So yeah, a big opportunity and he looks great in training. He’s back. He was in the squad last week but now he’s back in completely normal training and hopefully it stays like this and then he will start.
Liverpool had tied down Gomez to a new long-term earlier in the summer with the renewal putting an end to speculation over the defender’s future at Anfield which had come up following his limited first-team opportunities last season.
Steven Gerrard’s Aston Villa had been credited with a strong interest in moving in for the English centre-back which had prompted Liverpool to table extended terms for a player highly rated by Klopp.
