Phil feels at home

JURGEN KLOPP has described Philippe Coutinho’s request to quit the club for Barcelona as a short marriage break-up that was resolved – and says his team-mates will not be bitter because he was not trying to join a Premier League rival.

The Reds manager held talks with Coutinho after his return from international duty with Brazil and is happy his attitude is right after Barcelona’s failed summer bids He said: “Most of them are friends for many years. It’s 100 per cent if a club like Barcelona is around then nobody says, ‘Are you crazy, what do you want to go there for?’ “Everyone has this little bit of understanding and thinks, ‘OK it’s Barcelona and it is not that he wants to go to Everton’.”

Today Liverpool meet Manchester City before their return to the Champions League group stages against Sevilla on Wednesday.

Klopp said: “It is all exciting and you want to be part of it. Of course you can tell a player it is like this but you have to feel it.

“That is mouth to mouth, players talk to each other and they want to be part of it. That is nice but in the end we still have to deliver. We cannot just go ‘good player here, good player there’ and it will happen somehow. Nothing just happens.”

New signing Alex OxladeChamberlain is unlikely to start today while Coutinho is not in the squad because Klopp believes he needs more time on the training ground following his back injury.