Liverpool newly appointed manager Jurgen Klopp facing the challenge to deal with several injuries to his side’s star players and he feels a big vacuum is now on the back after missing players like Philippe Coutinho for injury. Although both Daniel Sturridge and Jordan Henderson are available to play again after a long absence from the field, yet Klopp is looking for 23-year-old Brazilian who has missed last three games for a hamstring problem he conceived during Saturday’s 4-1 win at Manchester City. Earlier, he was expected to came back after one game, but now after being in the stands for three games, manager wants him to recover sooner and take the responsibility although there is big relief to the side since return of Sturridge recouped the loss to some extend who scored twice in the Southampton win. Knowingly, Coutinho could join the team against Newcastle at St James’ Park on Sunday, however, it is still a guess and only manager can share the details on his recovery by then. Anyways, having been optimistic for a champions league qualification, Reds look focused over their upcoming games despite having been passing through several injuries and manager said on missing key players at this stage, “I like optimism, really, but with Phil we were too optimistic. Sometimes it happens like this and there is nothing to criticise — he has tried everything he can.
“He trained nearly normally but he doesn’t feel comfortable and we have to take care of this because the muscle is a dangerous thing when you always feel it a bit. He is training and we will wait. I can wait every day, it is no problem. If someone tells me, ‘now he is available,’ and next time he will play with us, no problem. Yesterday, no-one gave me this sign so today we have to wait again.”
Adding about Sturridge’s comeback and why he should shoulder most of the burden on his shoulders in absence of Coutinho, Klopp explained, “I think it is completely normal with a player with a long injury history. Obviously he did well in the last game and the plan before the game was to play about 55-60 minutes so that is what we did.
“Of course he felt each muscle after the game, that is normal because it was intensive, but in this moment he is available for the weekend and we will see.”
