Despite drawing against West Ham in the FA Cup on Saturday, Klopp’s side comprising mostly U21 regulars held their own against the Hammers and even in some instances made a case for inclusion in the team when a more senior squad is selected.
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A 0-0 draw against West Ham in the fourth round on Saturday added yet another game to Klopp and Liverpool’s schedule with the replay.
Jurgen Klopp’s side also had a gruelling 120-minute battle with Stoke on Tuesday night, which they won on penalties to reach the Capital One Cup final.
“The second round, a young team played and did great against – as you see now – a really strong opponent, Bournemouth”.
West Ham were, though, indebted to their goalkeeper Darren Randolph, who made fine stops from Cameron Brannagan, Joao Teixeira and Christian Benteke.
“It was frustrating because when you do well you want to play more and more”.
“I don’t know what happened (after his debut)”, said the Portuguese, who arrived from Sporting Lisbon in the summer of 2012 for £850,000.
“I can not lead the community and say “come on, let’s make a 16-team league” or something like this”.
“They still have a big squad and players like Nathaniel Clyne, he will probably be back, they have Benteke, they have Joe Allen and Jordan Ibe”. “These are your rules and I think majority are older than we are”.
“Make no mistake we approach the game full of respect”.
However, West Ham boss Slaven Bilic believes fielding kids means you don’t really care about the Cup. It is tough changing clubs, I have changed clubs before, played in the Premier League and played a lot of games but it does seem to take time.
“This club is built on success, they’re used to winning trophies”, said Milner.
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The Liverpool manager was keen to rest key players ahead of Tuesday’s trip to Premier League leaders Leicester, as his side faced their ninth match of a busy January. “We have beaten them twice, we are confident and hungry to progress in the FA Cup”. We talk about us playing West Ham on a good run, and we’re talking about us missing chances, doing this better and that better, but because we have another game it feels less enjoyable.
