Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp says that he can almost always predict who has suffered his side’s latest injury, amid his team’s terrible luck this season.
Injuries to key players such as Virgil van Dijk and Diogo Jota have damaged Liverpool’s Premier League title defence.
- Challenge 2021: How Do I Improve the Physical and Mental Well-Being of My Employees?
- See Ahead! Prepare for the Future!
- Yet again, Covid has taken another patriarch – T.D. Jakes
- Unity Homes, Rendeavour expand partnership from Kenya to Nigeria
However, amid Van Dijk‘s long-term knee injury, it is at centre-back where Klopp’s options have diminished most.
Dutchman Van Dijk went down in October, before Joe Gomez joined him in November. What’s more, Joel Matip encountered a series of smaller issues before suffering serious ankle ligament damage in January.
But new recruit Ben Davies missed Saturday’s match with Leicester due to a small knock he picked up. As such, Klopp told reporters at Tuesday’s press conference how he can almost predict who has been injured.
“Strange things happen injury-wise,” the manager said (via Liverpoolfc.com). “If somebody comes to me and tells me ‘We have a player with a minor problem’, I can tell it’s a centre-half.
“That’s how it is, all the time. It’s unbelievable.
“The whole season is like this and I don’t know why it happens, but we learn a lot.”
Liverpool’s injuries have correlated with a run of poor results. The Reds have lost three games in a row ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League last 16 clash with RB Leipzig.
“A lot of people are not happy with the results. I get that, I’m responsible for that, 100 per cent,” Klopp said.
“But we played still some pretty good stuff. You can forget that, we cannot, because that’s the start of changing things.
“Massive challenge, I am ready, the boys are ready, we give our absolute everything to sort it.”
Klopp opens up on Liverpool support
Amid Klopp attempting to steady the Liverpool ship in public, the recent passing of his mother – which he spoke about – has dominated his private life of late.
As such, the Liverpool manager has received a showing of support from fans, who have erected a banner donning his name outside Anfield.
Talk has surfaced that he could move on from Merseyside, but Klopp confidently declared: “I don’t need a break”.
He added: “”I heard about both. The banner is nice, not necessary. I don’t feel that I need special support in the moment, but it’s nice.
“The last thing I want is to talk about private things in the press conference, but everybody knows that privately we had an absolutely tougher time.
“But that is not only for only three weeks ago, that is a much a longer time already. We always deal with it as a family, 100 per cent.
“If I’m private, I’m private. If I’m in in the workplace I’m here. Of course we are influenced by things that happen around me, but nobody has to worry about me.
“I might not look like this, because the weather is not cool, the beard gets more and more grey, I don’t sleep a lot. That’s all true, but I’m full of energy. Honestly.”
Source: TeamTalk