Why Trey Nyoni and Harvey Elliott are absent for Liverpool's Champions League clash with AC Milan

Liverpool’s starting eleven for their opening UEFA Champions League game is particularly strong as Arne Slot looks to get off to a winning start.

With only a few changes from the weekend defeat to Nottingham Forest, it means the new boss has finally made some changes after keeping the same starting team from the opening four games of the season. In come Kostas Tsimikas and Cody Gakpo for Andy Robertson and Luis Diaz to refresh the side.

One player who is absent, however, is Harvey Elliott. The youngster was waiting in the wings for his opportunity after failing to start any of the opening three games before his injury setback. He now won’t be available for at least a month having sustained a fractured ankle during England under-21 duty.

Last year he made 53 appearances in all competitions which included eight starts in their 10 Europa League games before they dumped out by Atalanta in the quarter-finals. He has nine appearances in the Champions League and has netted twice across his time in the competition so far. Also missing are young duo James McConnell and Jayden Danns.

Another player who fans would have liked to have seen is youngster Trey Nyoni. Picture previously in a Liverpool Champions League kit photoshoot, he was left out of the 12 substitutes to captain the Liverpool U19 side in the UEFA Youth League as they took on AC Milan U19s. They managed a goalless draw against the Italians who had the lions share of the action as Nyoni came up against Zlatan Ibrahimovich’s son Maximilian.

Since the 2007 Champions League final defeat, they have only faced Milan twice in competitive action. That came in the 2021/22 group stage campaign where they did the double over the Italians as they came out of the ‘group of death’ - which also included Porto and Atletico Madrid - as winners. A two-one win at the San Siro came courtesy of goals from Mohamed Salah and Divock Origi, in a game that featured starts for Nat Phillips, Tyler Morton and Takumi Minamino.