Wagner warns of Klopp injury smokescreens

this afternoon. The Town boss is ready to face the pair, despite his pal Jurgen Klopp ‘moaning’ about Liverpool’s injury problems.

“I know Jurgen long enough that I know he loves to use some smokescreens,” Wagner, who coached the second team at Borussia Dortmund when Klopp was in charge of the senior side, told a news conference.

“Don’t believe everything you read — I expect that most of his players will be on the grass on Saturday.”

“But they have such depth in their squad and so many good players that they have great alternatives.”

Wagner is also taking confidence from Town’s performances against Liverpool last campaign.

“We played them twice, but even if we conceded two 3-0 defeats the games didn’t look like 3-0 defeats from my point of view,” he said.

“Away we were lucky Salah missed his penalty but at half-time it was 0-0 and we were very solid, before making one individual mistake.

“At home we had the first big opportunity through Laurent Depoitre at 0-0 and then they scored an unbelievable strike with a deflection from 30 yards that they wouldn’t normally score. Yes, we lost, but there were some things in the games and we will take on board the experiences and prepare.”

Despite Wagner’s cheeky jibe at his friend Klopp, the Huddersfield chief says the German does take an interest in Town’s fortunes. “We are one of the clubs, apart from the top six, where he is very interested in what is going on,” he said. “When we speak, about 95 per cent is about the Premier League, football and what is going on. “Unfortunately in the past I have not been able to celebrate a lot of results by phone when I have spoken with him (this season), but I was able to let him know our performances are good. “I think he is aware there will be no surprises in this next game, because we know each other too well.” And Wagner added that the Liverpool manager was in touch at the end of last season to congratulate him on beating the drop. He said: “When he or I are successful we send each other a text message or a voice message. “And this was the case after the game we played against Chelsea away, because this was a very important result for us and for him at that stage of the season as well.”

Don’t believe everything you read - I expect most of his players will be on the grass