Liverpool have a laundry list of players out through injury with their two newest additions sure to be a major concern in the weeks to come.
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The injuries marred one of the gutsiest displays under Klopp as the Reds played with intensity and negated Stoke City’s creative threat to win the League Cup semi-final first leg 1-0 at the Britannia Stadium. They did not look too good and so we have to wait. “I wasn’t shocked either because we know his quality when he plays well”.
Kolo Toure (cramp), Mamadou Sakho (knee), Jordan Henderson (heel), Danny Ings (knee) and Joe Gomez (knee) are also sidelined.
“Coutinho is more serious than Dejan”, said Klopp in a press conference.
“They’ve got four or five hamstring injuries, so something is not right somewhere”.
“Kolo played outstanding tonight and was really good for us, but we’ll see if he can play the next game”. “You can’t blame that”. “The key from our point of view is that we didn’t concede again and the danger was that if we over committed and conceded another one that would have been a huge task to go to Anfield and claw it back”.
Liverpool have little time for recovery as they face an FA Cup trip to Exeter on Friday and then host Arsenal in the Premier League on 13 January. It’s been a tough run and with the demands on players nowadays there’s bound to be injuries.
“If you look at teams around the league, I bet you’ll find the number of injuries has definitely increased”.
Liverpool would appear at Wembley for the second year running if they make it through after last year’s FA semi-final loss against Aston Villa.
But he added: “We’ll all stick together”.
Connor Randall, Brad Smith and Cameron Brannagan are among the young players expected to travel to Exeter, with Klopp admitting before training on Thursday that he does not know the options he has available.
“It will be a big chance for the boys but there is no pressure because they are still young”.
“We take back our own players”, said Klopp.
“There have been some disappointing results recently and the work is on now for us to get consistent and turn it around”.
He said: “I’ve seen it at some clubs before”.
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“We have the self-belief we can do much better and I think this performance shows that”.
