Jürgen Klopp, the Liverpool manager, has warned his players not to test his patience as he demanded an immediate response to a dismal defeat at West Ham.
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Speaking after the game, Klopp said: “It’s a big, big shadow for us over the game that we can not ignore – we have two injuries (Coutinho and Lovren) and I honestly don’t know how serious they are”.
More importantly though it would have given his squad the kind of pre-season needed for what Klopp is now demanding of his players.
Outspoken Dutch fitness expert Raymond Verheijen had predicted something similar on December 23, tweeting, “It will be interesting to keep an eye on Liverpool in the upcoming weeks as they are about to hit an injury crisis under new manager Klopp”.
Liverpool clinched a 1-0 win over Stoke City in the League Cup semi-final first leg.
Klopp admitted he feared the worst over Coutinho and Lovren, saying: “We had for sure two bad – I think, bad – injuries and that’s why we’re not only lucky tonight”.
However, Liverpool were dealt a blow when playmaker Coutinho went down clutching his thigh on 18 minutes, with youngster Ibe coming on to replace the injured Brazilian. However, Stoke are certainly not a team that would care about holding on to the ball, especially against a team with the quality of Liverpool FC.
They did come up against a Stoke team who never really got going in the game, and the victory hands Liverpool the advantage heading into the second leg at Anfield later this month.
“Getting the result [against Stoke] was a great one because it puts Liverpool in a good position to get into a cup final”, the former defender said.
Despite their injury problems, though, Liverpool were soon in front, as Lallana broke down the right on to a through pass, and delivered a cross that Joe Allen helped on for Ibe to blast beyond Butland.
Stoke’s attacking trio of Bojan Krkic, Xherdan Shaqiri and Marko Arnautovic struggled to get into the game at the other end, and when they did create a chance, Bojan fluffed his shot from a low corner.
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“The important thing for us is to make sure we are still well in the tie going into the second leg, and then see where it takes us”. It was by far the closest Stoke came in a first half after which they were lucky to enter the dressing room only a single goal down. “Hopefully we can do well against Stoke”, Mignolet said.
