Mane’s absence explained as Klopp benches Firmino for trip to in-form West Ham

Liverpool are without the services of Sadio Mane (£11.9m) for their match against West Ham United this afternoon, which kicks off at 16:30 GMT.

The Senegalese winger, who was transferred in by over 130,000 Fantasy Premier League managers following his 15-point haul in Gameweek 20, misses out with what Liverpool say is a “minor muscle injury”.

The Reds add that the problem is “expected to be only a short-term issue”.

His manager added ahead of kick-off:

In fact, only one of the Reds’ regular front three makes Jurgen Klopp’s starting XI today.

Mohamed Salah (£12.5m) is joined in the reigning champions’ attacking trident by Divock Origi (£5.2m) and Xherdan Shaqiri (£6.4m), with Roberto Firmino (£9.4m) only among the substitutes.

Along with the two changes to his front three, Klopp has replaced the injured Joel Matip (£5.4m) with Nat Phillips (£4.0m) at centre-half.

The Hammers are unchanged from the side that won 3-2 at Crystal Palace and David Moyes has even named the same nine substitutes from that victory.

West Ham United XI: Fabianski, Coufal, Dawson, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Rice, Soucek, Fornals, Bowen, Benrahma, Antonio.

Liverpool XI: Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Phillips, Henderson, Robertson, Wijnaldum, Milner, Thiago, Shaqiri, Salah, Origi.

GET IN-GAME DATA AT LIVE FPL

Check your own rank and in-play FPL stats on LiveFPL.net every Gameweek