Liverpool announces UEFA Champions League squad for group stages
The Reds have named their squad for the UEFA Champions League group stages and rather unsurprisingly, have left out injury-prone Naby Keita and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain from the squadron.
The ‘A list’ squad for the Reds includes Fabio Carvalho and new signing Arthur Melo. Notably, youngster Stefan Bajcetic is part of the squad as well. First-team regulars Harvey Elliott and Curtis Jones are part of the ‘B list as the Reds could not name a minimum of eight homegrown players in the ‘A’ list.
However, the point to be noted is that the pair of Oxlade-Chamberlain and Keita have missed out on making it to the 25-member squad. Rumour has it that these two players won’t stay beyond the current season at Liverpool.
Both players have not had the best time at Merseyside, their time at the club laid with injury problems. The Englishman arrived at the club from Arsenal in 2017 for a fee of £35m. Keita though joined a season later for a fee of £48m from RB Leipzig. Arguably, both of them have not been up to the expectations.
Oxlade-Chamberlain has not featured for Liverpool since pre-season. Keita has not featured since Liverpool’s Community Shield win against Manchester City. The Guinean is nursing a muscle injury. Ox has played 133 games for the Reds, scoring on 17 occasions and assisting 15 more.
Keita has been underwhelming as well, scoring 11 goals and assisting seven in 117 games. Both players will be ‘out for a while’ according to Jurgen Klopp.
The duo’s unavailability during crunch games puts the fans in a situation of frustration with the pair of these players. Both players cost the club a lot of money and have let down the fans’ expectations.
Another reason as to why they missed out can be attributed to their long-term injuries and might not feature as much before the international break in November. Hence, it might be a calculated move as well.
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The rest of the squad though looks promising and would hope to go the distance this time around after failing at the final hurdle to Real Madrid last season.
