Liverpool manager, Jurgen Klopp has continued to lament the injuries that left his squad depleted.
About 6 first team players are already out of action with one injury or the other. This made the German tactician say he doesn’t have enough players to rotate his Liverpool squad ahead of tonight’s meeting with Ajax at Anfield.
Liverpool lost their last match against Atalanta having beaten the Italian side 5-0 in the first leg of the UEFA Champions League. With Thiago Alcantara set to be out until 2021 with a knee injury, Klopp might be forced to make some acquisitions in January.
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On Saturday, utility man James Milner also got injured in the 1-1 draw at Brighton. Klopp has been blaming his side’s schedule for the player’s hamstring injury.
Klopp says no competition in Liverpool at the moment as the club battle injuries
Klopp has further stated that it’s not about competition at the club at the moment, but the availability of the fittest players to play for the club.
“I don’t have enough players to prioritize. It’s not about the competition; it’s about the players. On Saturday, the fittest players played.
“It’s not a perfect situation but obviously not enough people want to offer us any kind of help [with the fixture scheduling], not only for us but for [all] football people. We just have to deal with it.”
Liverpool injury news ahead of Ajax meeting
Thiago has been out of action since sustaining a knee injury in a challenge by Richarlison in a 2-2 draw at Everton on 17 October.
Although the skipper, Jordan Henderson is fit but Klopp confirmed that Thiago, Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez and Milner, Xherdan Shaqiri, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Naby Keita remain out of action.
“Thiago, we have to maybe clarify it a little bit. On that day when Thiago got injured in that challenge in the Everton game, there was another bad injury [to Virgil van Dijk, who suffered cruciate knee ligament damage].
“After the scans, it was like one was really bad news, and the other one was really good news because nothing was broken, nothing was ruptured and stuff like this.
“But, as we realise now, it was still a massive impact on the knee. I can’t say exactly when he will be fine, but it will take a few weeks,” said Klopp.
Liverpool needs to avoid defeat against the Dutch to qualify from Group D. If Atalanta fails to beat Midtjylland, Liverpool will top the group provided they win as well.
