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Klopp to rest stars for Genk visit ahead of mammoth City clash

Cape Town - Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp is expected to rotate his squad for Tuesday night's Champions League clash with Genk at Anfield.

Joel Matip, Xherdan Shaqiri and Nathaniel Clyne all remain on the treatment table, while Ki-Jana Hoever is still away at the FIFA U17 World Cup and unavailable.

Klopp will be able to select his side from the same squad that was available against Aston Villa last weekend after everyone came through unscathed.

Even so, the Reds boss still plans to utilise his squad with one or two players set to be rested following a hectic run of fixtures, with fresh legs being brought in.

Fabinho was an unused substitute during the 2-1 win over Villa, to prevent him picking up his fifth yellow card of the season and a one-match ban, and looks set to come into the side, along with James Milner.

That means Reds skipper Jordan Henderson could be handed the chance to rest his legs ahead of this weekend's big game against Manchester City in the Premier League.

"We will hopefully have a couple of fresh legs in," Klopp said. "It's clear that we want that, but it's not like we will do so many changes that you cannot recognise our team anymore and think, 'Who is that?"

A win against Genk would go a long way to securing Liverpool's progress to the knockout stage as Liverpool have a three-point cushion over Red Bull Salzburg, who face Group E leaders Napoli.

Their 4-1 win in Belgium a fortnight ago was an occasionally chaotic affair after Klopp opted for an experimental midfield with Naby Keita and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who scored twice on the night, leaving Fabinho regularly exposed.

Klopp's team selection may not be as open as that at Anfield, but he stressed the onus is always on them to attack.

For Genk, left-back Jere Uronen started when the two the sides clashed a fortnight ago but is sidelined with an injury.

Goalkeeper Danny Vukovic is also out.

Kick-off is at 22:00.

- TeamTalk Media

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