Jurgen Klopp Complains of Lack of Players to Rotate Against Ajax
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has opened up concerning the alarming rate of injury in the Liverpool team. The manager said he doesn’t have enough players to rotate when they take on Ajax later today. New signing Thiago Alcantara is still in the injury room with a couple of other first-team starters still in the recovery room.
Utility man James Milner was injured in Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Brighton, with Jurgen Klopp blaming his side’s schedule for the player’s hamstring injury. Jurgen Klopp also said that former Bayern Munich midfielder Thiago will be out until the new year with his knee injury. He said: “I don’t have enough players to prioritise.”
“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.”
Thiago has not played since being injured in a challenge by Richarlison in a 2-2 draw at Everton on 17 October. Liverpool skipper Jordan Henderson has returned to the team as confirmed by Klopp. But the likes of Thiago, Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez, Milner, Xherdan Shaqiri, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Naby Keita remain out of action.
Jurgen Klopp also said: “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.” Liverpool will qualify from Group D if they avoid defeat by Ajax and will be group winners if they win and Atalanta fail to beat Midtjylland.