Premier League leaders Liverpool take on Roy Hodgson’s Crystal Palace on Saturday at Anfield hoping to extend their lead to seven points at the top of the table and pull away from Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City who are in 2nd place. During Liverpool’s training session at Melwood on Wednesday, there was a new face that was seen which may give us an insight as to whether Jurgen Klopp would want to bring in some young members into the first team squad in order to make up for some injuries or players with fatigue.
Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool currently sits pretty at the top of the Premier League table with an incredible 57 points in 22 games so far suffering just one defeat against Manchester City. But despite scoring 50 goals already, a very impressive factor for Liverpool has been their defensive record as the Red half of Merseyside have conceded just 10 goals so far keeping 13 clean sheets in the process.
With this stubborn defense, Liverpool is surely in the hunt for the Premier League title but Klopp is aware that he needs to have re-enforcements for any key players who could get injured at this crucial point of the season. Liverpool spent big on their summer signings in order to ensure that they are prepared to fight for the League title against Guardiola’s Manchester City, a club that won the title by a record 100 points last season. Liverpool recruited Fabinho for £40m from AS Monaco, Naby Keita for £50m from Red Bull Leipzig, Xherdan Shaqiri for £13m from relegated side Stoke City and the big fish Alisson Becker at £60m from AS Roma.
The Brazilian shot-stopper has been absolutely brilliant for Liverpool as he has already proved his worth for the Reds faithful between the sticks in just over half a season. However, second choice keeper Simon Mignolet has not been a solid back up as Liverpool lost in the first round of the FA Cup and League Cup when the Belgian was given the opportunity to start. Therefore, Liverpool has got in a new face at training, as they welcomed youth talent goalkeeper Vitezslav Jaros into the first team training just ahead of their clash against Crystal Palace at the weekend.
The 17-year-old keeper signed for Liverpool back in August 2017 from Slavia Prague but is yet to make his senior debut for Liverpool but did represent the U-18’s in the FA Youth Cup when Steven Gerrard was in charge of the youth team. Jaros was seen spending time up close with stars Virgil Van Dijk, Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane as he looked comfortable in training.
However, there was no sign of English right back Trent Alexander Arnold (who is out for at least 2 weeks) and Dutch midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum at training who were nursing their respective injuries. Manchester City legend Yaya Toure spoke earlier of Liverpool’s chances and claimed that he was afraid of Jurgen Klopp’s unit being a City fan and would rather be in Liverpool’s place at the moment as they lead by seven points at the top.
