COVID cases pick up pace at Liverpool
LIVERPOOL boss Jurgen Klopp says he’s worried about the growing number of COVID cases at the Anfield club.
Three more first- team players have gone down with the virus while several staff members are being forced to self- isolate.
Klopp hasn’t said who they are but goalkeeper Alisson and Roberto Firmino were missing from training along with Thiago Alcantara. He has already had COVID a couple of weeks ago and is struggling with a hip injury.
Klopp said: “We have three new COVID cases in the team and a few more in the staff. You will see on Sunday when you see the teamsheet it’s pretty clear who is affected.
“We never had this kind of proper outbreak where 10, 15, 20 players had it, for us it’s more every day another one.
“Staff happens now more and more often, so as I said before it feels like a lottery in the morning when you stand there and you wait for the result.
Defeat
“It was now pretty much day by day always one case – today another one.
We have to wait, the boys are not even in yet, so we have to wait. In this moment, probably not but we don’t know how it will look in a few hours.”
On the pitch, Klopp knows defeat at Stamford Bridge will all but end their already slim hopes of winning the title.
But he is putting a brave face on it.
He said: “You cannot
win the league properly in the winter.
“It’s unlikely but what City have now is a gap, they deserve it, but let’s just give it a go.
Only one team can be champions.
“A decisive moment in April, you have to be close enough then. So many games to play, oh my God.
We have to make sure we’re really on it again and I expect a really strong Chelsea. They have a proper football team. Leicester gave us a good example that it can be intense. We will put a proper shift in.
“I know how we felt day after the Leicester game and I still felt the defeat.
“It’s not bad, but we don’t want to get used to it.
“As a person you want to show a reaction with your mates and team, that’s exactly what we try.
“I expect a football reaction from the team.
“I am pretty positive about the mentality of my boys that they will recover.”