Jurgen Klopp is sweating on the fitness of Diogo Jota as the Liverpool boss grapples with a growing injury crisis. The Portuguese underwent lengthy treatment and was able to play on for a further 15 minutes before being replaced by Takumi Minamino. Liverpool will assess Jota’s fitness over the weekend with the striker already a doubt for the Champions League clash against his former side FC Porto at Anfield on Wednesday.
Jurgen Klopp said: “The situation is not easy and Diogo went off and he got a proper knock against his knee. They went knee to knee I think and we have to see how quickly that develops, in the right direction hopefully. Hopefully it’s nothing serious. It would be very important.”
Andy Robertson, Neco Williams and Divock Origi joined James Milner, Curtis Jones, Naby Keita, Joe Gomez, Harvey Elliott and Roberto Firmino on the sidelines for Saturday’s match. Liverpool nevertheless earned a comprehensive triumph that moved them into second place and four points behind leaders Chelsea.
Jurgen Klopp said: “Now we need to look at who is able to go again and who we have to rest or whatever and then we will see. At the moment someone tells me ‘these are the names you have to pick from’ then I will do that. But we will fight with all we have. Some players have a little chance to come back for Wednesday, I think. That would be great. And after that, step by step hopefully they can come back and then we have more players available, which is absolutely helpful when you play every three days.”
The Reds boss also paid tribute to an impressive performance from Fabinho, Thiago Alcantara – making his first start in two months after a calf problem – and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in midfield.
Jurgen Klopp added: “Ox didn’t play 20 games in a row, Fab came back from internationals and before the internationals he was injured and then played. Thiago cannot have rhythm really because he didn’t play a lot of games because he was injured as well. How the boys play today, how they found together a really compact formation was absolutely exceptional. We will never take these kind of things for granted, I told the boys after the game. It doesn’t help us a lot for the next four or five weeks, but it helped us tonight. It’s the only thing we could do.”
