London : Chief coach Jurgen Klopp has confirmed on Tuesday that Liverpools star players Roberto Firmino and Diogo Jota will be unavailable for Wednesday’s Premier League game against Leeds United.
“No chance for tomorrow. Sunday we will see. It will be easier for me to say no now but they are pushing. Not on the pitch for training which is not a good sign. We’ll make a decision in the week,” he said on Tuesday.
Both Jota and Firmino were injured during last week’s 2-0 Champions League last-16 first-leg win against Inter Milan, with the former suffering an ankle injury and the latter a muscle problem. They both missed Saturday’s 3-1 win at home to Norwich City.
Klopp was keen to stress his focus on Wednesday’s game and said Sunday will not influence team selection.
“I didn’t think about Sunday’s team. One thing I’ve learned is it doesn’t work for me to have two or three games in my mind. We try everything for this game,” Klopp was quoted as saying by liverpool.com
“We didn’t make changes for Leeds or final, we needed to rest some. Exactly how we do it now. I have a few things to solve this week but I don’t even try to think about the next game we play,” he said.
On the state of Leeds, the Liverpool manager said, “They miss a few very decisive players. Patrick Bamford, [Kalvin] Phillips and [Liam] Cooper, that’s pretty much the spine. I know how much that can hurt you. But I expect exactly the same attitude. The result we had [in the 4-3], that’s pretty much how Leeds is. They play all in. We won that night, but that’s not because we are Liverpool and they are Leeds. It’s just because we scored one more goal.”
–IANS
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