League Cup: Klopp not to blame for injury crisis, says Lallana

Coutinho, Lovren join long list of hamstrung players in 1-0 win over Stoke

STOKE-ON-TRENT: Liverpool midfielder Adam Lallana believes the Red’s injury woes have nothing to do with a change in training methods under manager Jurgen Klopp.

Liverpool beat Stoke City 1-0 in their League Cup semi-final first leg on Tuesday night, but the win was marred by hamstring injuries to midfielder Philippe Coutinho and centre-back Dejan Lovren, leaving Klopp with 11 players on the treatment table.



Daniel Sturridge, Martin Skrtel, Divock Origi and Jordan Rossiter are also nursing hamstring problems, and critics have sought to blame the manager’s high-pressing style and the intensity of his training sessions for the injuries.



Lallana, however, sprang to his manager’s defence and refused to blame Klopp for the injuries.

“Sometimes you are just unlucky with injuries and we’ve had a lot of bad luck recently,” he told the club’s website (www.liverpoolfc.com). “I know from my time at Liverpool that we’ve got a world class medical team here. We certainly can’t point the finger at anyone.”

Injury crisis tilts Klopp toward transfer market

Jurgen Klopp has indicated that he may have to enter the transfer market to buy a defender as Liverpool’s injury crisis grows.



“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,” said Klopp. “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.”

The Liverpool manager also added that the injury troubles overshadowed what he felt was a much better performance from his players following the disappointing display they produced in losing 2-0 at West Ham. 

Published in The Express Tribune, January 7^th, 2016.

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