As dire as things have been for Liverpool in the Premier League so far this season, with Arne Slot’s title-defending Reds slumping to 12th place after 12 matchweeks, their performances and results have been at least passable in the Champions League.
There, they sit eighth after four games, good enough for the final slot that would qualify them for a bye through the first playoff round. They return to action on Wednesday against Dutch champions PSV, and as much as the points it feels as though they need
a performance and result simply for morale.
If they are to get that, though, they will have to do so without Florian Wirtz. The German attacker missed Sunday’s dire 3-0 defeat at Anfield against Nottingham Forest due to a muscular issue picked up with Germany over the international break.
He has remained absent from training ahead of the PSV match and has been ruled out. More worryingly for Liverpool and Slot, though, is that right backs Conor Bradley and Jeremie Frimpong have also been absent this week after missing out on Saturday and so neither will be available.
With Calvin Ramsay not registered in Europe, it will mean either deploying Joe Gomez or Dominik Szoboszlai at right back on Wednesday, and the hope will be that—particularly in the case of Bradley and Wirtz—they may be available for West Ham on Sunday.
