Jurgen Klopp: "As long as we have 11 players, we will go for it"

Jurgen Klopp spoke to the media ahead of Liverpool's clash with Luton on Wednesday evening. 

Jurgen Klopp: "As long as we have 11 players, we will go for it"
Diogo Jota down against Brentford (Photo: Justin Setterfield/GETTY Images)
declancarr96
By Declan Carr

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp gave a key update on the status of several of his players ahead of the clash with Luton Town on Wednesday night.

The German confirmed that Alisson Becker, Diogo Jota, Curtis Jones, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Dominik Szoboszlai will miss the contest. 

He also seemed to confirm that there are some knocks that could be a game day decision.

“It is not great, I would like to sit here and say there are absolutely no issues. 

Not available, Ali, muscle injury, Diogo, with a knee issue, ruled out, Curtis with a bone ligament issue, ruled out. 

The others where we will deal with it day by day, with muscle things, we will see for tomorrow. 

The little bit longer term like Trent and Dom are on their way back but not in team training yet, and so that means they are not available as well. 

As long as we have 11 players we will go for it."

Klopp later expanded on some of the aforementioned injuries when asked about the time frame of Jota and Jones' injuries, including ruling the Portuguese forward out of Sunday's Carabao Cup final.

“Diogo, it will obviously take months. 

With injuries you have important days, so day five, day ten, when you judge the situation again because nobody reacts the same way, and depends on the pain level they still have and stuff like this. 

I could not give you a time frame even if I wanted to.”

  • A different Luton to last time

The 56-year-old was full of praise for the man who will be in opposition dugout at Anfield. 

Luton are 18th in the Premier League, level on points with Everton and would overtake the Blues with a point on Merseyside in their game in-hand.

“Tomorrow night is an incredibly important game for us, against a really good side. 

Rob, and the job he is doing there is insane, the team with the amount of points they had in the beginning of the season, making such a footballing development, I am not sure I saw that before. 

It will be a tough one. We need Anfield, 100%, it must be [like] a European night. 

The way that they play their system, the confidence level is incredible, even in the games they lost, they were really in the game.

We experienced a tough game there [at Kenilworth Road], but that was a completely different game to how they act now. 

That time they were rather passive, deep defending, counter attacking, they still have that but in possession they have found a structure where everybody feels really comfortable. 

I think Ross Barkley is one of these nice stories, who is back to his best or better, plays a deeper role, super disciplined, on the ball incredibly strong.

Lokonga, when you see him playing him, you think he is an Arsenal player and they loaned him? Interesting.

They obviously are really together, I think the situation at Bournemouth a few weeks ago, or months ago, with the captain is something that brought them even closer together. 

It showed them that there are worse things in life than maybe getting relegated, so fight for the chance you have, and that is how they show up, I respect that a lot.

They deserve respect and we have to show that with a proper Liverpool performance, everybody who enters the gate to Anfield has to be on their toes tomorrow night because they are really good.”

  • Relying on youth 

With all the injuries that his squad have, Klopp, who has been known to utilise academy products throughout his spell on Merseyside, and he hinted that he would be open to using even more if necessary. 

“We will see how many of them we will have to use. 

We have options there definitely, players who showed already what they can do like James [McConnell] or Bobby [Clark] and others who didn’t feature yet but are in and around that. 

[Lewis] Koumas, Dannsy [Jayden Danns], Trey [Nyoni], are all massive talents. We will see what we will do.”