Liverpool host Everton in the Merseyside Derby at Anfield on Wednesday night – and the international break and injuries have given Arne Slot plenty to ponder for his line-up
Injuries have left Liverpool with a problem position for the Merseyside Derby against Everton. Arne Slot’s side host their rivals at Anfield on Wednesday night after a 16-day break since the defeat by Newcastle in the Carabao Cup final.
The international break has given Liverpool plenty of time to take stock of their 2-1 defeat at Wembley and they now have one sole focus: winning the Premier League title. The Reds hold a 12-point lead over second-placed Arsenal with nine games remaining – the first of which comes against Everton in mid-week.
It comes just 49 days after the last Merseyside Derby, which saw James Tarkowski smash in a dramatic injury-time equaliser for Everton at Goodison Park. The international break has passed without too much drama for Slot, who is expected to have both Alisson Becker and Ryan Gravenberch available, despite their withdrawals from their respective national teams.
Alisson sustained a concussion while playing for Brazil against Colombia and was ruled out of the team’s second World Cup qualifier. However, the goalkeeper has since been assessed by Liverpool medical staff and is expected to be fit to start against Everton.
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Gravenberch pulled out of the Netherlands squad with a niggle but should also be fine to play against Everton. There is an obvious issue for Slot to address at right-back, however, with Trent Alexander-Arnold (ankle) and Conor Bradley and Joe Gomez (both hamstring) ruled out with injuries.
Alexander-Arnold was injured in the 1-0 defeat by Paris Saint-Germain on March 11 and didn’t play for England in their wins over Albania and Latvia. He is expected to return some time later in April, but his absence – and those of his understudy Bradley and fellow right-back option Gomez – should mean a start for Jarell Quansah. Tyler Morton is the only other unavailable Liverpool player.
There are also concerns for David Moyes, who is sweating on the fitness of left-back Vitalii Mykolenko, who suffered a thigh problem while on international duty with Ukraine this week. Mykolenko was forced off in the second half of Ukraine’s 3-0 Nations League loss to Belgium and with head coach Serhiy Rebrov painted a grim picture post-match.
“Unfortunately, he has an injury. He will do an MRI,” he said. “We’ll see. I know Vitalii. If he didn’t continue playing, then the injury was really serious.”
Speaking on March 19, Moyes outlined the prognoses of key attackers Dwight McNeil, Illiman Ndiaye and Dominic Calvert-Lewin. “I don’t think we’re necessarily going to have any of them back after the [international] break,” he said. “But we’ve got three boys there – Dwight, Ili and Dom – who we could all do with seeing back if we could.”
McNeil hasn’t played since a 4-0 victory over Wolves in December, in which he aggravated a knee injury, while Ndiaye suffered medial ligament damage to his knee in the first derby.
They are both in contention to play vs Liverpool, having returned to training, but Calvert-Lewin is still out with a thigh injury and midfielder Orel Mangala is unavailable with an anterior cruciate ligament injury.
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