After bringing you a round-up of Thursday’s pre-FA Cup press conferences, we continue our summary of the early Gameweek 24 team news with a rundown of Friday’s media gatherings.
The managers of Chelsea, Crystal Palace, Leicester City, Liverpool, Manchester City, Norwich City, Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham United, Wolverhampton Wanderers will all face reporters, so we’ll recap the key quotes in the article below.
And where better to start than a significant update from Jurgen Klopp on Mohamed Salah (£12.7m) and Sadio Mane (£11.7m)…
LIVERPOOL
Klopp was fairly positive on his two premium midfielders when asked about their prospects of returning in time to face Leicester City, although did leave enough doubt about their Gameweek 24 involvement.
“I think they will be available, we will see. The one who wins will probably fly back to their home country, celebration, that’s how it is. I think Tuesday or Wednesday, latest, the winner will be back, and the other one probably slightly earlier. We will see. And then I have to talk to them, I don’t know. One thing, they have rhythm as they’ve played obviously quite a few games!” – Jurgen Klopp on Mohamed Salah/Sadio Mane
The Liverpool boss also gave an update on his previously injured players, with the Reds now close to having a clean bill of health.
“[Harvey Elliott] is in a good place and is in full team training now, but we have to see what is right for him – is it right to start [or] is it right to come on? But he will be in the squad definitely for the Cardiff game and from there we go.
“Most of the things look completely natural, absolutely, really quick after a long, long period without proper team training. When you saw him the first time, you thought immediately, ‘Maybe we take him with us’ but it obviously made no sense. He has now to go step by step to get back to his best, but he is close. Very close.
“Thiago trained with us. Unfortunately, when COVID is around you always think it is the only infection or virus you can get, but he had a little chest infection so he had to step a little bit aside again. That’s not perfect, of course, but I expect him to be in team training today again so we will see. The injury is completely fine, he looked really good in training, but that’s how sometimes things are. We will see how we can use him for Sunday.
“Naby is completely fine. Naby came back full of energy, had a few days off as well. Came back here after the tournament full of energy and confidence, so that looked good.
“Divock, yesterday, first time full team training, looked very good, but it was the first time full team training after a while, so from here we go as well.”
Klopp also discussed new signing Luis Diaz, urging caution with the young winger.
“If he would now come, step on the pitch, and was immediately at his absolute best and playing better than all others then it would be really strange. He needs time to adapt to it but that doesn’t mean I speak about four or five months or whatever. I haven’t even seen him yet here on the training ground so maybe we should wait a little bit!
“We are really happy and excited about the signing. I think it’s a really good sign that we work on all fronts to improve this team. We have to be successful now and in the future, so he can help with both.” – Jurgen Klopp on Luis Diaz
CHELSEA
Reece James (hamstring) has returned to individual training but is still some way from a playing comeback and will play no part in Chelsea’s FA Cup fourth-round tie or the two Club World Cup fixtures in the coming week.
Gameweek 26 might still be a bit of a doubt, too, based on Thomas Tuchel’s comments on Friday afternoon.
“Not Reece James, not Ben Chilwell, not Ruben Loftus-Cheek. They are still injured. Everybody else was in training except Christian Pulisic and Thiago Silva (who were on international duty).
“[James] is not in team training yet. After these couple of weeks where he’s out now, he needs also some time in team training to get the rhythm back, to get confidence back before we can think about letting him play. He does not travel with us tomorrow to Abu Dhabi because he’s not part of team training.” – Thomas Tuchel
MANCHESTER CITY
Gabriel Jesus is a fresh concern for Manchester City ahead of their FA Cup tie against Fulham after returning from international duty with Brazil.
Oleksandr Zinchenko has returned to training but Cole Palmer remains out with an undisclosed issue.
“Except Gabriel [Jesus], who came with a little niggle after the international break, the rest that were able before the international break, they are able tomorrow.
“Cole Palmer is not ready. After the game in the FA Cup, had some problems and still is not available. He’s not training with us since then, we’ll see what happens the next weeks.” – Pep Guardiola
LEICESTER CITY
Jamie Vardy (hamstring), Wesley Fofana (leg), Ricardo Pereira (leg), Jonny Evans (hamstring) and Ryan Bertrand (knee) remain on the Leicester injury list but Kelechi Iheanacho and Wilfred Ndidi are back from the Africa Cup of Nations.
Brendan Rodgers revealed that Vardy and Evans are still at least a month away from a return but Fofana could be back sooner.
“Vards is probably about four weeks or so, Jonny will be a bit longer, maybe up to six weeks. Their contribution is still very important off the field.
“[Fofana] will look to join in the squad the week beginning 14 February, which is great news for us. He’s working very hard with our medical and sports science teams. He’s looking very strong and is, of course, in this final period before he rejoins the squad for training. We’ll then assess it from there. We’ll see where he’s at in that first week and, hopefully, somewhere in February, he’ll be close to playing.” – Brendan Rodgers
TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR
Son Heung-min (muscle) and Cristian Romero (hamstring) are both available for selection ahead of Spurs’ FA Cup tie against Brighton and Hove Albion this weekend, with Japhet Tanganga (knee) and Oliver Skipp (groin) the only two absentees.
“For sure, Cristian could be a new signing for us! With me, he’s only played two games. It’s important to have a player with his potential available now. We’ve seen the improvement in Sanchez, Davies, Tanganga, it was good, and now to have Cristian available is good news, and like a new player for me.
“Sonny is okay, and now we have three games in a few days, it will be very important to give him the right minutes to play, but Sonny is another player that, you know very well, is very important for us. He can move the balance during a game. I’m very happy to have him available again.” – Antonio Conte
Conte confirmed that new signings Dejan Kulusevski and Rodrigo Bentancur will also be available but that neither player will start.
The Spurs boss, interestingly, went on to say that Kulusevski has the potential to play at right wing-back, as well as in a number 10 role – so may end up providing occasional competition for Emerson Royal.
“He is a good player, he’s very young. I think he’s a great talent. He can play like a number 10 if you want to play with two players behind the striker.
“At the same time, he has the potential to play also as a wing-back on the right. He has good quality. He likes to attack, he’s good in one vs ones, to create chances for his teammates. I think a good signing for us.” – Antonio Conte on Dejan Kulusevski
WEST HAM UNITED
Michail Antonio racked up three starts and 220 minutes of football for Jamaica over the international break and his late return to London means that he is unlikely to feature against Kidderminster Harriers in the FA Cup this weekend. It’s not ideal with regards to his long-term fatigue levels, either, although his Gameweek 24 game-time prospects would obviously be aided by a rest on Saturday.
“Mic will arrive back today at 11am from Jamaica, which as you can imagine is not particularly good. If you look at it realistically, you’d have to say it’s a terrible situation.” – David Moyes
Moyes hinted that he would spare a few other key players against the non-league outfit:
“Our players are well-rested, but I also have to say that we have a Premier League game in midweek as well, so that has to come into consideration.” – David Moyes
CRYSTAL PALACE
Patrick Vieira revealed that Wilfried Zaha and James McArthur – back from international duty and a hamstring injury respectively – won’t feature in the FA Cup this weekend and need “a couple more days”. Both players should be involved against Norwich in Gameweek 24.
James Tomkins is also back in training after a month on the sidelines with an unspecified issue.
WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS
Bruno Lage says there is no change from the Wolves squad that faced Brentford in terms of injuries. Jonny (knee), Willy Boly (calf) and Pedro Neto (knee) have all started working with the team but are not ready.
NORWICH CITY
Norwich should have four players back for the Gameweek 24 clash with Crystal Palace: Mathias Normann, Billy Gilmour, Lukas Rupp and Andrew Omobamidele.
“We’ve got Billy Gilmour back, Mathias Normann back. Lukas Rupp and Andrew Omobamidele are back on the grass but I won’t consider them for Wolves as they’re not quite ready. They’ll be ready for Palace in the week. It’s great to have four big players back for us who’ve been out for quite a few weeks.” – Dean Smith
However, Tim Krul (shoulder) and Jacob Sorensen (knee) remain sidelined after picking up injuries before the winter break.
“Tim Krul is still out, he’s doing some light handling work at the moment. An operation wasn’t required but we have to be careful with it being a shoulder injury.
“Jacob Sorensen is better than what we thought. It’s a medial ligament injury, he’s running on the grass and healing a lot quicker. He won’t be out for too much longer.” – Dean Smith
