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The silence that enveloped the room was almost suffocating. Jurgen Klopp had his features set in stone.
They had just asked him if, with Liverpool’s prolonged injury problems, they would play an under-23 team in the Premier League by the turn of the year.
After a moment of dead air, he grimaced and replied, “I get the joke, I’m just not laughing !!” It’s really no laughing matter for the Reds boss. Not in a season that says “no team is big enough” to cope.
That is why he has left behind the belief, the conviction, of a managerial life that it is quality that ultimately wins titles. This season, this painful and terrible season, he said, becoming Champions will be more a matter of luck than judgment.
(Image: PA)
“All teams are quality, so that will always be influential, but you have to be lucky with injuries,” he said, without a hint of relief in his voice. Klopp is already tired from the challenge, he senses it.
“In some things we can influence, rotate, make decisions, but whatever teams you have for problems, they are not enough.
“You can’t leave the players out for four or five weeks because you don’t need them and then you bring them in and they’ll be convincing, in 100% best shape for the next game, I don’t think it’s always possible.”
(Image: PA)
Liverpool, of course, have lost Virgil van Dijk for pretty much the entire season, Alex Oxlade Chamberlain has been sidelined for months, and they’ve already been without Alisson, Thiago, Joel Matip, Naby Keita, Jordan Henderson, Joe Gomez and Kostas Tsimikas. in just six weeks into the season.
However, you know there is no point in complaining about it. All the best clubs in the Premier League, ‘seven of us in Europe’, we are in the same boat, and the challenge now is simple: how to survive a season unprecedented in football history.
“It has an impact on the health of the players, but the boys enjoy playing and they have to be prepared. My job is to make decisions, change here, rotate there and help everyone to be on the court in the best possible way, “he explained.
Do Liverpool have the depth to win the Premier League this season? Give us your opinion here.
(Image: Pool via REUTERS)
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“It is very influential this time, of course. It will be interesting in the summer, after an incredibly intense season, that we have a European Championship and, for the first time, now three headers in the international break.
“That makes October, November and December so challenging. We have all the information on the table, the schedules are there and we have to deal with that ”.
What Klopp doesn’t want is for people to think for a second that they are groaning, when then there are much more serious problems in the world. “So it was always clear, life is in the moment, really difficult and we don’t make this football problem the biggest problem,” he said.
“My concern is the well-being of the players. From time to time it is very important to talk about the mental well-being of the players, but we have to talk about the physical well-being of the players much more often.
“That’s because kids always want to play even though they can’t. So we have to make lists of matches and schedules where they can and are capable. “
It means being creative. He only has one senior central defender in shape, and while Joel Matip is training again, he’s unlikely to take a chance this weekend. There are young middle halves, but Klopp will think outside the box this season.
“We still have other options like Hendo, Gini or James Milner or Andy Robertson, who can also play as a center midfielder. They are not smaller than Mascherano and he played quite well in that position ”.
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