Florian Wirtz missed training with Liverpool on Tuesday, in a major blow to Arne Slot’s struggling side. The German international picked up an injury during November’s international break, and missed the Reds’ 3-0 thumping from Nottingham Forest on Saturday.
However, Wirtz was not the only Liverpool star absent from training this week. As per reports, Jeremie Frimpong was also missing from Tuesday’s session at the AXA Training Centre, as was Conor Bradley – as both continue to recover from their own respective injuries.
It will come as disheartening news to Liverpool fans, who have recently seen their side suffer a sluggish run of form in the Premier League. At the time of writing, the defending championslanguish at 12th in the league standings, losing six of their last seven outings.
And while Slot will hope to find his footing in Europe to make up for a turbulent term on English soil, he looks to be without three key players in Wirtz, Frimpong and Bradley for Wednesday evening’s clash with PSV Eindhoven.
In the Champions League thus far, Liverpool have enjoyed wins over Atletico Madrid, Eintracht Frankfurt and Real Madrid, as well as enduring a loss to Galatasaray at the end of September. And as a result, they sit eighth in the competition’s league table.
However, they could climb the standings on Wednesday with a win over the Eredivisie’stable-toppers on home soil, depending on results elsewhere. It comes as Slot came under fire for Liverpool’s 3-0 loss to Forest at Anfield at the weekend.
The Reds struggled to get going in front of the Kop, heading 1-0 down midway through the first half when Murillo found the back of the net. Igor Jesus looked to have doubled the visitors’ lead moments later, only to see his goal ruled out for a handball in the build-up.
Nicolo Savona bagged a second for Forest moments after the restart, before Morgan Gibbs-White put the game well and truly out of reach with around 10 minutes left to play. Speaking after the match, Slot explained how Liverpool failing to take their chances in the first-half proved particularly costly.
He said: “How bad is difficult to measure, but it was very bad, of course. Playing at home, losing 3-0, no matter which team you face, is of course a very, very, very bad result. Unexpected if you look at the first half-hour of the game.
“In my opinion, a good start from us. Haven’t seen us creating so much in the first half-hour of a game maybe throughout the whole season – I’m not sure because I don’t remember every single game now, but we were able to create a lot.
“And the first time they arrived in our box, they scored a goal and it’s a very difficult cocktail to drink, or to have. If you miss out on your own chances, then almost every time you concede one the ball goes in.”
