Liverpool pair face battle to be ready for Man United game

Daniel Storey

Liverpool’s home game against Manchester United on Saturday October 14 could go a long way to shaping their season. Beat their fiercest rivals and Jurgen Klopp can reasonably argue that the campaign is back on track. Lose and those questions about progress will continue.

With that in mind, Liverpool could do without doubts over two of their best players. Yet Philippe Coutinho and Roberto Firmino are both currently with the Brazil team that will play qualifiers against Bolivia and Chile over the international break.

The latter of those two games, against Chile in Sao Paulo, takes place late on Tuesday evening.

That means that Coutinho and Firmino will not return to Liverpool training until Thursday at the earliest, with the Manchester United game taking place on Saturday lunchtime.

While the rest of Liverpool international players will return by Wednesday at the latest, and plenty by Tuesday, Klopp will be left sweating over the energy levels of Coutinho and Firmino.

Is one day’s full training, plus a rest day, enough to allow both players to start at Anfield?