The men’s team posed for their traditional Christmas photo on Wednesday, donning Santa hats and enjoying a rare light-hearted moment in a brutal schedule.
Images published via liverpoolfc.com showed plenty of smiles, but also quietly underlined an emerging problem ahead of the Wolves match.
Of the players Arne Slot referred to in his pre-match press conference, only Florian Wirtz was visible on the training fields.
What Liverpool’s Christmas training told us about Slot’s injury update
The Dutchman had spoken on Tuesday morning about the fitness of Alexander Isak, Wataru Endo, Joe Gomez, Conor Bradley, Cody Gakpo and our number 7.
The head coach confirmed that the striker has already been ruled out following surgery, while Endo and Gomez will also miss the weekend.
Bradley and Gakpo were described as “50-50”with a final decision postponed until Friday.
However, Slot was clear about one thing.
When asked about the German playmaker, the former Feyenoord coach said: “Another example of a player who has to play a lot and is adapting better and better to the Premier League.”
That assessment was supported by what we saw during training.
Wirtz, the 22-year-old summer signing from Bayer Leverkusen, was present, active and fully involved as Liverpool continued their preparations.
However, the absence of the others keeps us firmly in a wait-and-see zone.
Why Liverpool are in for an unusual festive break for Wolves
Virgil van Dijk has already confirmed that there will be no training on Christmas Day, a decision that speaks volumes about where we are physically and mentally.
The captain admitted it was something he had never experienced before in his Premier League career and described the decision as “a nice change”.
That context makes Wednesday’s session even more important.
There will be one last chance on Friday to judge who will return for Saturday’s game.
The momentum remains with us after the 2-1 win away to Tottenham, where discipline problems from the hosts helped us secure another crucial victory.
The challenge now is to keep that run going with limited time on the grass.
Much may depend on how heavily we lean on continuing to carefully manage Florian Wirtz during the festive schedule, while others race to stay fit.
Slot has bought himself breathing space.
Whether the team can make full use of it will only become clear when training resumes after Christmas.
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