Federico Chiesa and Tyler Morton may have hoped to feature as Liverpool travelled to Girona with the pressure off in the Champions League
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Federico Chiesa of Liverpool and Chris Black, Lead Strength and Conditioning Coach, ahead of the UEFA Champions League 2024/25 League Phase MD5 training session at AXA Melwood Training Centre
Federico Chiesa of Liverpool and Chris Black, Lead Strength and Conditioning Coach, ahead of the UEFA Champions League 2024/25 League Phase MD5 training session at AXA Melwood Training Centre
(Image: Photo by Jess Hornby/Getty Images)
If the coming of Storm Darragh and the postponement of the Merseyside derby was something of a stroke of luck for Arne Slot and Liverpool, then there is nothing fortunate about the welcome position the find themselves in the revamped Champions League.
As the only side to win all five of their fixtures this season, Liverpool top the table in the new standings on 15 points and have already qualified for the next phase. A win from their final three league phase games would almost guarantee them a spot in the top eight and avoiding the prospect of having to play an extra qualifying round in early February.
And that means that while Liverpool's clash with Girona in Spain on Tuesday isn't exactly a free hit, it's as close as Slot's side will get to a game without pressure during the busy December schedule.
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Slot therefore has the luxury of making some changes to his side and extending the breather handed to his team after the match against Everton was called off on Saturday. Indeed, during Liverpool's 3-3 draw with Newcastle last week, several players were starting to look tired after an intense period in which injuries have started to mount.
There was good news on that front on Monday when Diogo Jota and Alisson Becker, both key players and first choice for Slot in the early stages of the campaign, joined training with their team-mates. And while the match in Girona has come too soon for Jota to start, Alisson may at least hope to regain his starting berth ahead of Caoimhin Kelleher.
Harvey Elliott is certainly someone who may hope to be handed a starting berth by Slot, having featured very little this season due to a foot injury sustained during the September internationals. This could represent a chance for the 21-year-old to get vital minutes and show his boss that he can feature in that more advanced role occupied this season by Dominik Szoboszlai and Curtis Jones.
But it's not all good luck for Liverpool. Federico Chiesa and Tyler Morton may both have harboured ambitions of featuring in Spain.
For the Italian, it has been a tough slog since arriving on Merseyside in late August. Having featured from the bench against Bournemouth and Milan, he enjoyed one start against West Ham in the Carabao Cup before a succession of injury problems saw Liverpool put him through a mini pre-season in order to build hit fitness back up.
Signs of progress have been slow, but Chiesa will have been hoping to kickstart his Liverpool career after taking a significant step in his road to recovery by starting and scoring for the Liverpool under-21 side against FC Nordsjaelland on Wednesday evening. He completed 60 minutes in total and has been training with the first team ahead of his return to action.
Illness, however, ruled Chiesa out of Monday's training session and he hasn't travelled with the Liverpool side to Spain as a result. It's a cruel blow to a player who will have been hoping to get more vital minutes for the senior side on Tuesday evening.
Morton, meanwhile, has been fit throughout the season but has found appearances hard to come by amid fierce competition in Liverpool's midfield area. The 22-year-old has started just one game this season and impressed in the 3-2 victory at Brighton in the League Cup fourth round, notching an assist in his 64 minutes on the pitch.
He has, however, been in every Champions League squad so far. The youngster has since had to wait patiently for another opportunity and may have had genuine hopes of being given a chance - either from the start or bench - against Girona. He'll certainly be targeting a start in next week's Carabao Cup quarter-final at Southampton.
But a knock picked up in training on Monday now rules Morton out of the meeting with Girona and he'll hope that it's not enough to sideline him long enough to miss that trip to the south coast.
Both players will certainly have extra motivation to see Slot's side get the job done on Tuesday evening, with the additional two league games in Europe against Lille at Anfield and PSV Eindhoven away from home representing further opportunities for rotation, and a chance for them to kick on.