Villarreal are at Anfield in the Champions League on Tuesday, after Liverpool came from behind to win 2-1 at Brentford on Saturday.
Andoni Iraola’s press conference at 1.30pm today is the next likely chance of news on Dominik Szoboszlai and Jeremie Frimpong, and the club will stream the opening part of training from 5pm.
There was nothing new on transfers overnight from the likes of David Ornstein and Paul Joyce.
Szoboszlai and Frimpong
No scan results have been reported overnight, and the club’s injury list hasn’t changed since Saturday, when Iraola said Liverpool would lose both players “for some time”.
Szoboszlai aggravated the injury that had kept him out of the previous two games, against Manchester City and LASK. Frimpong’s is a new problem: he replaced Ronald Araújo at half-time and lasted only a few minutes.
Iraola said Victor Muñoz was “very good” at right-back after Frimpong went off. Ryan Gravenberch has served his one-match Premier League ban and is understood to be available for Villarreal.
Conor Bradley, Hugo Ekitiké and Giovanni Leoni remain out.
Villarreal held after Napoli win
Tuesday’s visitors drew 0-0 at home to Elche in La Liga on Saturday, four days after beating Napoli 3-1 in the Champions League.
Iñigo Pérez made nine changes for the Elche game, with only Alberto Moleiro and Santi Comesaña keeping their places. Villarreal dominated but couldn’t find a way past Elche goalkeeper Matías Dituro.
Wirtz’s nine chances
Florian Wirtz created nine chances from open play at Brentford, including the assist for Muñoz’s equaliser. According to Opta, that’s the most by a player in an away Premier League game for more than 15 years, since Samir Nasri’s 10 for Manchester City at Tottenham in August 2011.
Transfers
Monday’s gossip columns recycle the Alex Scott story, but there’s no fresh original reporting. The Times reported last week that Bournemouth would consider a January sale for around £100m, while Sky Sports reported on Friday that an offer of more than £80m including add-ons would have to be taken seriously.
The pro-Barcelona paper Sport lists Liverpool among the clubs interested in Stuttgart defender Finn Jeltsch, 20, with no backing from British reporters. There’s no credible ownership, FSG or investment news.
Fixtures (UK times)
Tuesday 20 October: Liverpool v Villarreal, Champions League, 8pm
Sunday 25 October: Liverpool v Brighton, 2pm
Wednesday 28 October: Liverpool v Chelsea, Carabao Cup fourth round, 8pm
