Liverpool's Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez in contention for Norwich City starts

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has affirmed that Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez should be in contention to start Saturday's Premier League opener with Norwich City.

The two centre-backs have been building up their fitness in pre-season following devastating injuries in the 2020-21 campaign, which saw Klopp swoop for Ben Davies and Ozan Kabak on loan.

Ibrahima Konate has also arrived from RB Leipzig, while Joel Matip is stepping up his comeback from an ankle problem, and Klopp is optimistic that Van Dijk and Gomez could feature from the first whistle at Carrow Road.

Speaking to Liverpoolfc.com, Klopp said: "I think so, it looks like [they are available to start]. But how it is with these kind of things, we have nothing to rush in this department.

"We just have to make then a decision on who will start, who will come on, things like this and if I think they are ready for 90 minutes then they are ready to start.

"If I think we have to take them off earlier then it makes no sense because centre-half is not actually a position where you want to change during a game and so we will see. But both look really good. An intense season is coming up. We will see how we decide that."

Van Dijk and Gomez both earned game time in Liverpool's final two friendlies - a 1-1 draw with Athletic Bilbao and 3-1 victory over Osasuna in front of the Anfield faithful.