‘Should not play’ Klopp cryptic over team selection

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp was cryptic over his team selection for the important Premier League match against Manchester City.

Let’s not beat around the bush, the game on Sunday is massive. It has real potential to make or break this season, and if Klopp can’t mastermind a victory over Pep Guardiola, we can probably kiss our title aspirations goodbye.

It’s been a really difficult season to be a Liverpool fan. No other side has had to contend with all of their senior centre-backs suffering campaign-ending injuries, while COVID-19 and the associated disruptions have ripped a hole in Klopp’s squad and his budget.

Liverpool keep Manchester City in the dark

However, there have been various positive notes. Going top of the Premier League by Christmas was followed by a swift decline before two wins in a row against Tottenham and West Ham indicated there were some green shoots of recovery on the way.

That was blown apart by the Brighton smash and grab, and now Liverpool is faced with a tough fixture against City with the knowledge that they have to get a win or else.

That’s the context behind Klopp’s recent press conference, where he remained tight-lipped about the nature of the starting team and who might be in it.

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Ozan Kabak and Ben Davies are ready and waiting in theory, but everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face. The problem with Kabak and Davies is that if it’s City doing the punching, they might not recover.

Thus Klopp refused to say if either of the new centre-backs would start on Sunday, while the German also decline to give his opinion on the usefulness of Fabinho and Jordan Henderson if they returned to their natural midfield positions.

"The official club website reported that he said: “With our situation, we will see who can play again, who cannot and who should not or who should play again – all these kind of things. Then we will see.“In an ideal world, you have a few weeks and work together on defensive things, especially organisation and all these kind of things.”"

We’ll have to keep guessing the likely starting side, but at least that’ll mean Guardiola won’t know either.