Jurgen Klopp will be giving Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez every chance of playing their way into contention for the Premier League season opener against Norwich City. The Liverpool boss further added that he’s hoping to get more minutes from his two centre-halves before they face the Canaries.
The return of Virgil Van Dijk and Joe Gomez has provided Liverpool with an improved defensive cover but the Reds will hope to be at full strength for the meeting with newly-promoted domestic rivals. That has seen reports indicate that Van Dijk and Gomez are looking to force their way into Klopp’s plans after missing much of the 2020-21 campaign with serious knee injuries. However, while nothing has been confirmed both defenders made their long-awaited return in a preseason defeat to Hertha Berlin.
But in light of the rumours, Jurgen Klopp has given his verdict on the much-awaited return of his centre back pairing and how he plans to use them ahead of the returning season. The Reds boss is hoping to get more minutes in what he describes as a slow and steady integration process. He also added that the club will not push their return and instead let the two defenders make their own way back into the fold.
“Hopefully, yes. That’s how it looks in the moment. I want to make it really clear, we push nothing. We just don’t. We wait a little bit, the players come, we have now with Dr Andreas Schlumberger, a real specialist who is in constant talks and always observing everything. We know exactly how they feel – how they really feel and not what they tell us because they obviously are desperate to play again,” Klopp said, reported Goal.
“Sometimes in moments we swap Virgil and Joe a little bit so maybe the intensity doesn’t get too high, but in general, it looks really good. How many minutes on Thursday? I don’t know, but there will be some minutes for sure.”