Jurgen Klopp believes Sunday’s FA Cup trip to Nottingham Forest could be the ideal chance for Joe Gomez to kick-start his Liverpool season.
Jurgen Klopp said: “He’s been good, Joe is an outstanding centre-half and an even better boy. So he is good but of course it is not the situation he wished for. You have a really long time injured and then you come back and think ‘I’m ready, let’s go’ and then you have the problem – not a problem but the situation – of the three other centre-halves who could start earlier and gain rhythm game after game. And he was a bit unlucky in the FA Cup when he was not [COVID-19] positive but it was a false positive so he couldn’t play and was unlucky on top of that. He is a top-class player and not an inch worse than all the other three who are playing, but the other three have rhythm because they have played more often. That’s the problem we have, but for a club with aims and ambitions we have it can happen. It will not last forever but so far it has happened like this. And the next game would be a good opportunity for him – that’s true.”
The Liverpool manager warned against complacency at the City Ground this weekend after watching Steve Cooper’s Forest eliminate both Arsenal and Leicester en route to the quarters. And Klopp admits the fixture schedule pile-up that comes with being in the hunt for all three of the FA Cup, Champions League and Premier League at this stage of the campaign makes achieving the difficult task of a quadruple even tougher.
Jurgen Klopp added: “If we just go in that direction thinking ‘that’s a little bit of a relief’ that would be a problem. If we take only a little bit off the gas – not even fully just a little bit – gone, three competitions, see you later, no chance. We should not even try to go to Nottingham. And again I like being in a situation where I’m getting asked these things because that means we are in quite a good position, but the only problem is that I don’t have the appropriate answers because the only thing I can do is really be focused on the next game. I don’t have enough space to think about other stuff and I don’t have to. Someone told me we could play 18 more games if [we go all the way in FA Cup and Champions League finals]. I have no idea how we are going to fit them all in. To be honest I don’t know. May 22 (final weekend of the Premier League) and then a week later there could be a Champions League final. Where are they all? The FA Cup final would be the week before the end of the season so that means that the Premier League game would need re-arranging as well. So the calendar is not made for a lot of success for the same team. Maybe at one point we say ‘we can focus on this or focus on that’ or whatever but the only way I know is to stay completely focused on the next game and that is Nottingham and we already have more problems than I wish because in one position [we have injuries], we have COVID here and there and then Nottingham coming up. Yes, they are a Championship side but one in a really good moment. Steve Cooper is doing a brilliant job there. You can see how they set up a system, they have big talents in the team as well. Probably the whole Premier League is after them. So it is really tough one and the challenge at this moment is to know about the positivity of the situation but to push it aside and just be as greedy, angry and desperate to win the next game as if we were in the worst position in the table – like if you don’t win that then it’s all over. That’s the situation we are in. To always get before kick-off to be the one team that nobody wants to play against and we try that again against Nottingham.”
