Mo Salah Liverpool decision vs Man City explained

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has revealed why Liverpool star Mohamed Salah won't be starting against Man City at Anfield today. Ibrahima Konate, who had to leave early during the second half of Thursday's game against Sparta Prague also hasn't made it.

Jarell Quansah starts in defence with Andy Robertson and Kostas Tsimikas left out. Joe Gomez starts at left back with Conor Bradley on the right. Harvey Elliott, Darwin Nunez and Luis Diaz start up front with Wataru Endo, Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai in midfield.

Konate not being there means Klopp is missing quite a few first-team players for the face-off with City. Alisson Becker, Joel Matip, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Curtis Jones, Ryan Gravenberch, Thiago Alcantara, Diogo Jota, Ben Doak and Stefan Bajcetic are also sidelined. Klopp made it clear regarding Salah not starting. He said the Reds "didn't consider" letting him play from get-go due to recent injury woes.

ALSO READ: Liverpool vs Man City live updates and analysis

ALSO READ: Guardiola warning to City players over Liverpool

Klopp, speaking to Sky Sports, said: "We didn't even think about him starting the game. We can learn. Not that Mo came back too early last time, he was a little bit unlucky with the setback but you can imagine, we have talked about that with Mo. It was not his or me idea to start him today. It will be an intense game and we can bring him on, which is super cool but it was not a big decision."

City opted to leave Ruben Dias on the bench with Manuel Akanji preferred. Julian Alvarez starts with Mateo Kovacic among the subs.