Former Liverpool player Graeme Souness has lashed out at Jurgen Klopp, feeling the German is responsible for Liverpool’s current injury crisis. The Scot took issue with Klopp’s style of play, also calling his training methods into question, as Liverpool suffered two significant injuries in last night’s 1-0 victory over Stoke City in the first leg of their Capital One Cup semifinal.
Speaking in his role as a TV pundit for Sky Sports, Souness said, “A new manager comes in and all the chat was about high press further up the field.”
“It's hard work to do that for 90 minutes. You can do it in bursts. You can do it for an hour, you can do it for 70 minutes, but to do it for 90 minutes is a big demand on your legs.”
“I just think they've fallen foul of that. It's not a coincidence, five hamstrings. To have them all at one time, I think they have to look at what they're doing in training. The sports medicine people, they'll be tearing their hair out.”
“They've got to manage that better because that can ruin your season. Hamstrings are not two or three days out, they can range from 10 days to six weeks so a hamstring is the one that players do not want.”
Klopp defends himself
When quizzed about his training methods being the cause for injury, Klopp’s response was rather cutting, saying “We don't train. We only recover, that is the situation now [referring to a game every three days], when should there be training? There is no training.”
As Dejan Lovren and Kolo Toure picked up injuries in the game against Stoke City, Liverpool have no recognized centrebacks fit, with Martin Skrtel, Joe Gomes and Mamadou Sakho already sidelined. Klopp mentioned the need for Liverpool to dip into the transfer market, saying, “In this moment with no centre back fit, I would say it is a situation where we have to think about going into the transfer market.”
“Two weeks ago we had three centre backs, that's a good situation, at the start of the season we had five, now we have none.”
With Schalke 04 centre-back Joel Matip available on a Bosman in the summer, Liverpool might look to pay the German club and hasten his arrival in this transfer window itself.
