I DON’T PHIL ANY GUILT SAYS KLOPP

JURGEN KLOPP defended his decision to omit Philippe Coutinho despite suffering his biggest defeat as Liverpool boss.

Coutinho was left out of Liverpool’s squad to face City after failing in his bid to force a move to Barcelona.

But Klopp stood by his decision not to involve Coutinho (below) and said even the Brazil playmaker would not have been able to save the Reds.

“I’m not sure it’s quite that easy,” said Klopp.

“With Phil, we didn’t always create more chances against City in the past. Yes, we scored more often in some games. But this was the decision we took.

“If people blame me for this, no problem.

“He came back after a long flight, and after three weeks without playing.

“We have matches next Wednesday and next Saturday and so we thought: ‘Let’s give him three or four days of proper training – and then he’s available for us’.”

Klopp’s failure to sign a central defender could ultimately undermine Liverpool this season.

Dejan Lovren was left on the bench after playing twice for Serbia during the international break, leaving Joel Matip and Ragnar Klavan to be torn apart by a rampant City.

“We were never compact enough. To defend, we needed to be compact,” said the Anfield boss.

“Can we play better? Yes, for sure. It’s really bad, and we have to take the blame for everything that we saw.”