Jurgen Klopp has revealed that he did not intend to have Arthur Melo available for Liverpool’s visit to Everton on Saturday.
The Reds signed Arthur on a season-long loan from Juventus on deadline day.
Liverpool have a lot of injured midfielders and the plan is for the Brazilian to act as cover.
The Athletic reported that international clearance would prevent Arthur from being eligible for Saturday’s Merseyside derby at Goodison Park.
However, there was a surprise in the team sheet when it emerged that the former Barcelona maestro had been included in the squad.
He didn’t get on the field – even when Liverpool lost a midfielder in the form of Fabio Carvalho – and here’s how Klopp reacted to the surprise development of having him eligible.
He told the club’s official website: “So, Arthur is here and very good and very important for us but he didn’t play football for a long, long time and yesterday played a rondo with us.
“We thought actually until last night that he would not be available, he was in the squad but it was not the plan.”
When is Arthur’s Liverpool debut?
Well that remains to be seen.
As Klopp mentioned, this is a player who hasn’t played a lot of football recently, so his match fitness will be minimal compared to that of his teammates.
Liverpool kick off their Champions League campaign with a clash against Napoli on Wednesday and even that might be too soon.
However, with Carvalho now joining Jordan Henderson, Thiago, Naby Keita, Curtis Jones and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain on the missing list, Klopp might not have a choice but to consider him against the Serie A outfit this week.
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