Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp made an admission that took journalists by surprise during his post-match press conference on Wednesday night.
The Reds’ boss was talking following the fairly routine victory in which Mohamed Salah scored a penalty and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain fired home after an excellent pass from the Egyptian.
Despite a few good chances, Alisson was able to keep another clean sheet and help Liverpool move 19 points clear at the top of the Premier League as Fabinho and Naby Keita continued their rehabilitation from injury as they were given minutes towards the end of the game.
Curtis Jones also got five minutes and Jordan Henderson even had a spell at right-back after Trent Alexander-Arnold was taken off. Alexander-Arnold had one of his off nights, as did left-back Andy Robertson and midfielder Gini Wijnaldum – which bemused Klopp as well.
Speaking to journalists, the German added that those three are normally so reliable that he would let them take care of his own kids! Predictably, this gave way to a bemused chuckle and a few surprised looks from the assembled press, who followed up in good humour to ask how old they were.
And Klopp is right. That trio are normally the most dependable people in the side. Robertson has been at a phenomenally high level for nearly two seasons now, while Alexander-Arnold’s off games take us all by surprise purely because he’s been so good for long. It’s difficult to remember how young Trent is.
Wijnaldum, too, is one of the manager’s favoured sons but if he’s not careful the pressure from Oxlade-Chamberlain might prove to be too much to ignore once Fabinho returns to full fitness. One of Henderson, Gini or the Ox is going to have to make one and right now it’ll be tough to drop the Ox.
Alexander-Arnold and Robertson aren’t getting dropped any time soon, but Wijnaldum might soon find himself with some space for babysitting duty opening up in his calendar.