Mohamed Salah injury concern prompts serious Liverpool rethink as six changes and wildcard considered
With a 5-1 advantage from the first leg, Jurgen Klopp is expected to make some considerable changes when Liverpool host Sparta Prague in the Europa League on Thursday.
The damage for the Czech has been done and it would surely be a miracle for the visitors if they are to even come close to overturning that first-leg deficit at the Letna Stadion. Stranger things have happened, perhaps. Just not that often.
With Manchester United to come in the FA Cup quarter-finals later that week, Klopp will be determined to ensure as many of his big guns are rested for that one at Anfield on Thursday night, particularly given the list of absentees at present.
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Klopp can ill-afford to be without any more of his walking wounded so risking too many of them in what is an effective dead-rubber is a risky balancing act he must get right. In many ways, that is the major challenge confronting the manager with a place in the quarter-finals of the Europa League virtually assured.
Third-choice goalkeeper Adrian may be given his first outing of the campaign in place of Caoimhin Kelleher, while Jarell Quansah is expected to start at centre-back. Joe Gomez may be asked to go in the centre alongside him with Conor Bradley and Kostas Tsimikas completing the back five.
In midfield, Carabao Cup final hero James McConnell can patrol the engine room as the defensive midfielder with Bobby Clark and Harvey Elliott further forward. The latter has been played to breaking point lately but it's needs-must and he can be withdrawn after 45 minutes for Dominik Szoboszlai, who could use
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