Alisson Becker will not play in the midweek match (Photo: Getty Images)
Federico Chiesa is Liverpool face West Ham on Wednesday night but Alisson Becker will not be playing.
The summer signing from Juventus has been working on improving his fitness after arriving at Anfield at the end of the transfer window and having little pre-season.
The Italy international has made just two substitute appearances for the Reds so far and manager Arne Slott says he is not yet fit to play the full 90 minutes, but is ready to start in the Carabao Cup tie against the Hammers.
“I don’t think he can play 90 minutes. He’s only played a maximum of 25 minutes in the last three, four, five months, I don’t think he even played in the friendly at Juventus,” Slott said at a press conference on Tuesday.
“But in our opinion, he can start. If he plays, we’ll see. We have a lot of options. In our opinion, he can start, but I don’t think he can play 90 minutes at the level we’re playing against a strong West Ham team tomorrow.”
Chiesa made his Premier League debut, coming off the bench in Saturday’s 3-0 win over Bournemouth, a game that was missed by Alisson through injury.
Federico Chiesa made his Premier League debut against Bournemouth on Saturday (Photo: Getty Images)
Caoin Kelleher will deputise for the Brazilian and is due to feature again at Anfield on Wednesday, but there is hope Alisson could be back in action on Saturday night when Liverpool take on Wolves.
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“Caoimhin will definitely be in goal tomorrow,” Slott said. “Alison is close but I think it’s a bit early for this game.”
“We’ve got Wolves at the weekend which will be a tough game so we’ll see if he’s available, but he won’t be available tomorrow. Caoimhhin will be in goal tomorrow. That’s all we know for sure at the moment.”
Slott was impressed with Kelleher, who kept a clean sheet against the Cherries, saying: “I wasn’t surprised at all by his performance, he’s already been very good in pre-season.”
“It’s good for us because we have two really good goalkeepers and the third one (Vitezslav Jaros) is a really strong goalkeeper too. I’m happy that he kept a clean sheet. He had to struggle a few times but he did really well.”
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