While Jurgen Klopp has captains coming out of his ears, Erik ten Hag is struggling to find just one for Sunday’s Liverpool-Manchester United showdown at Anfield.
The home team have five international skippers in their dressing-room – Virgil van Dijk, Mo Salah, Wataru Endo, Dominik Szoboszlai and Andy Robertson – and Klopp wouldn’t be at all anxious if another senior player like Alisson or Trent Alexander-Arnold took the armband.
Poor Ten Hag would love to be spoilt for such choice. While the suspension of club captain Bruno Fernandes may not seem a great loss given his petulant display in last season’s 7-0 drubbing on Merseyside, it does beggar the question who will lead the team out.
Casemiro, Christian Eriksen, Harry Maguire and Luke Shaw are likely to miss out through injury, an obvious candidate Raphael Varane has had his own issues with the manager and we wait to hear the latest medical bulletin on hometown boy Marcus Rashford who missed the defeat against Bayern Munich through illness.
Rasmus Hojlund and Kobbie Manoo are too young, Diogo Dalot and Antony probably too impetuous. There is more chance of me captaining United than Jadon Sancho.
