One journalist has said that Jurgen Klopp could soon be presented with ‘a nice problem’ at Liverpool.
Dean Jones was speaking in relation to the imminent return of Luis Diaz, who has been sidelined since October with a knee injury.
As per the Liverpool Echo, the Colombian has resumed training and is in line to become available once more when the Reds’ season resumes at the start of April following the upcoming international break.
His return to action will leave Klopp with six senior forwards to call upon, with one current starter possibly seeing his place becoming less certain.
Jones told GIVEMESPORT: “It’s a big moment to have Diaz back available again. Obviously, it brings fresh headaches like the role that Darwin Nunez plays in this team and where’s Cody Gakpo going to play?
“Is it time to maybe even take Mohamed Salah out for a game or two? Klopp doesn’t usually do that, but given the form of these players, you might begin to wonder what happens there. But, it’s a nice problem to have and Diaz is typically a player that tends to find form quite consistently.”
Jones is quite correct on one thing – the 26-year-old’s comeback from injury will leave his manager with an abundance of riches and some thinking to do in terms of selecting his starting attacking trio.
If, as he suggests, Salah is taken out of the starting line-up once Diaz returns, it would most likely be on a purely rotational basis, rather than any indictment of the Egyptian’s form.
The 30-year-old is our top scorer so far this season with 22 goals, netting five times in his last six games prior to Wednesday’s defeat against Real Madrid at the Bernabeu (Transfermarkt), so it’s not like he’s out of sorts and badly needs to be removed from the firing line.
Assuming the Colombian bounces back by showing the form which saw him plunder seven goal contributions in 12 matches prior to his injury (Transfermarkt), Klopp is more likely to rotate his attacking line-ups to keep everyone fresh rather than relegating players to peripheral status.
We might only have Premier League action on our plate for the rest of the season, but there’s still a dozen games to be played in the space of eight weeks after the international break, so squad rotation could be imperative to ensuring that everyone remains sharp in Liverpool’s pursuit of a top four finish.