Jurgen Klopp refused to criticise Mo Salah and attempted to put a positive spin on Liverpool’s injury crisis by insisting the more obstacles put in their way the closer his squad will become.
The international break only compounded Klopp’s problems ahead of a fixture schedule that will see them play 12 games in the next 43 days, starting with the home clash against Premier League leaders Leicester on Sunday evening.
Salah’s positive coronavirus test after attending his brother’s wedding in Egypt will rule him out of Sunday’s game as well as the midweek Champions League home fixture against Atalanta, and has lengthened a casualty list that already includes three members of Liverpool’s first choice back four – Virgil Van Dijk, Joe Gomez and Trent Alexander-Arnold – plus skipper Jordan Henderson and long-term absentee Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
Thiago Alcantara has stepped up his fitness work following a knee injury but is unlikely to be risked while Fabinho has trained with the first-team squad and could return to boost Klopp ahead of the encounter with Brendan Rodgers, his predecessor in the Anfield managerial hot-seat.
Salah, who arrived back on Merseyside in a private jet on Friday to continue his self-isolation period, was pictured dancing, socialising with guests and not observing social distancing at the wedding in Cairo during the international break.
Klopp appeared to be understanding of the circumstances although he wouldn’t clarify if he was aware that Salah was going to the event before hand.
“If we knew or not it is private,” he said. “Honestly, we cannot start giving little pieces of it. All the things I have to talk to my players about are not for the public. He is in a good place, he feels well, no symptoms, so that is all fine.
“In the summer a friend of mine moved his birthday party because he knew I was in Germany. It was allowed in Germany at the time, 50 people attended and it was outside and all that stuff but at the last minute I decided not to go. Maybe I don’t have that many birthdays anymore with my best friends so It was really hard for me because everybody was waiting for me.
“But in other countries and other situations there are more social pressures on you and a brother’s wedding is a very special moment. What I can say about my players is they are incredibly disciplined. They really know about the situation but sometimes it doesn’t work out like this, something happens and now we have the situation we are in. But all the rest is between Mo and me and we did that already so we are fine.”
Despite all the absentees, Klopp insists he and his players will not feel sorry for themselves and challenged young players like Nathaniel Phillips, Rhys Williams, Sepp Van Den Berg and Billy Koumetio to show he does not need to buy defensive reinforcements in the January transfer window, with Van Dijk and Gomez likely to be absent for a significant part of the season.
“There is no self-pity or feeling sorry for ourselves here,” he added. “A minute after finding out about an injury you are in the solution process. We are a proper unit. The more problems we have, the closer we stick together. We don’t like injuries but we are working on solutions.
“If we can do something in January I have no idea. If we want to do something in January I have no idea. We’ll just have to see. For the moment we are fine. We use the boys we have and I am really happy about the chance they have now.
“You should see them in training. They can smell the chance and they step up. They want to show they are ready and we will see. I’m really confident it will work out with the boys and then hopefully we can convince the rest of the world as well.
“When I came to Dortmund in 2008 my two centre-halves – Mats Hummels and Neven Subotic – were 19 and 20 and we played with them for that entire time.
“We have talent here. They are young – 18, 19, 23 – and we have more experienced players as well, so we will see. Everybody has a chance. We have midfielders – not in the moment but hopefully in a couple of weeks – who can play the more defensive role as well.”
Probable Liverpool team (4-3-3): Alisson; Milner, Phillips, Matip, Robertson; Keita, Fabinho, Wijnaldum; Jota, Firmino, Mane.
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