Liverpool have had almost another full week to prepare for Saturday’s clash with West Ham after seeing off Nottingham Forest on Sunday.
The Reds did not look better for a week off ahead of the Forest match, with question marks once again arising over Arne Slot’s decision to let his players have a number of days off.
Before West Ham, the Liverpool squad were thankfully putting in some graft at the AXA Training Centre on Thursday afternoon. And there were at least five key takeaways ahead of another big Premier League fixture.
CHANGE MY MIND: Liverpool will drop points vs West Ham if Wirtz doesn’t play 👀
He's our most important player right now, not Szoboszlai
Florian Wirtz form for Liverpool
Photo by Christian Kaspar-Bartke/Getty Images
Three right-backs train
One of the biggest talking points throughout Liverpool‘s campaign has been the lack of an available right-back. Slot picked Dominik Szoboszlai against Forest, but with the midfield getting overrun, he soon switched the Hungarian with Curtis Jones.
That was despite Joe Gomez being fit to play some part from the bench, and after coming on and playing his part in a smash-and-grab Liverpool win, the 28-year-old was back in training on Thursday, as seen on LFCTV’s latest ‘Inside Training‘ edition.
So too was Jeremie Frimpong, who could make his first appearance for the Reds since he sustained a hamstring injury against Qarabag in January. The Dutchman did not appear to be suffering any ill effects as he took part in the full session.
Meanwhile, Slot had another option on the training pitches in Kirkby, with Calvin Ramsay also continuing to train with the first-team.
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No sign of Florian Wirtz
Florian Wirtz pulling out of the pre-Nottingham Forest warm-up was clearly a factor in Liverpool putting on such a dismal showing on the day.
Slot was bullish about Wirtz’s chances of being fit for West Ham but, unfortunately, the German was not in action on Thursday.
It is likely to be touch and go for his involvement on Saturday, but on this evidence it appears highly unlikely that Wirtz will be in the starting XI.
Liverpool Training Session
Photo by Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images
Kieran Morrison continues first-team role
The win over Forest was notable for Rio Ngumoha’s impact from the bench during the final 15 minutes of the game. Liverpool would almost certainly not have won the game without the 17-year-old.
As usual, Ngumoha trained with his much older teammates on Thursday, with Trey Nyoni also maintaining his position as a regular with the senior team.
Along with Ngumoha and Nyoni, though, Kieran Morrison has begun making some big steps towards the first-team in recent weeks.
Sunday was his fourth consecutive appearance on the Liverpool bench, and he was fully involved in Thursday’s session as he hopes to make it five.
Mac Allister moment makes it onto the wall
Throughout the season Liverpool have been collecting moments to stick up as blown-up photographs on the wall of the gym in the AXA Training Centre.
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Rio Ngumoha and Cody Gakpo
Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images
While the first part of the season was littered with dramatic late goals to go up, there has been a real dearth of positive moments recently.
Alexis Mac Allister‘s last-gasp winner on Sunday was very much one of them, though, and it was nice to see a shot of the Argentine celebrating up on the wall. A photo of Wataru Endo during his stint at right-back against Sunderland was also spotted, proving just how highly his teammates thought of the Japanese’s efforts.
Szoboszlai not the only free-kick specialist
Another feature of Liverpool’s recent matches has been the free-kick brilliance of Szoboszlai coming to the fore.
On Thursday, fans were given a glimpse into how he prepares for that as he and a handful of Liverpool players took part in some free-kick drills at the end of the session.
Szoboszlai struck some beauties, hitting the woodwork three times, while Cody Gakpo, Mohamed Salah and Hugo Ekitike all tried their luck as well with varying degrees of success.
Szoboszlai aside, the best moment belonged to Mac Allister, who bent a lovely effort up and over the stationary wall and beyond a full-stretch Giorgi Mamardashvili. If the Reds’ free-kick specialist is not on the pitch for any reason, we now know who should be taking them.
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