Jürgen Klopp on squad news v Chelsea, Diaz and Thiago fitness latest
Jürgen Klopp provided a squad fitness update ahead of Liverpool's trip to Chelsea and the latest news on the availability of Luis Diaz and Thiago Alcantara.
The Reds travel to Stamford Bridge on Tuesday night aiming to produce an immediate response to their defeat at Manchester City at the weekend.
During his pre-match press conference Klopp discussed his team selection considerations for the Premier League contest, as well as Diaz and Thiago – read his answers below…
On having a short space of time between games to work with the players and produce a response…
We cannot work really on the pitch. But games like this [against City] have an impact, double – you might lose even more confidence but the desire to show a reaction is there as well. The boys are still good people and they want to show a reaction, 100 per cent. But the short turnaround is the problem, in this moment I have no clue who I can line up because I get this information after the press conference, because we want to wait with these decisions as long as possible, give the boys as much time to recover. There will be changes definitely, [there] have to be. That’s what we have to use then. Forty-eight hours and then you travel and then you wait in London in a hotel for the kick-off, it’s all here [in the mind] and that’s what we are working on.
On whether there are any details of injury doubts for Tuesday’s match…
No. Let me say, two days after a game pretty much everybody is a doubt but I didn’t hear now anything that somebody is definitely out; maybe a few late calls, that’s it.
On Diaz…
No, he’s not available [to face Chelsea]. But he is in training, but he is not ready for this game. As much as we want him to be back, we still have to give him time. Obviously it was long ago that he had the initial injury but when he came back to training in Dubai, it looked outstanding until he got injured again. So we have to make sure we are patient in that moment. This week, I wouldn’t say Arsenal is completely out of the picture but it’s rather unlikely. But after that then Luis will be back.
On Thiago…
We had Thiago yesterday in training, in normal team training, which is good as well, but he’s not available for tomorrow of course, so we will see how he reacts. That’s it.