Despairing Klopp’s latest injury blow ‘not cool’
JURGEN KLOPP did not disguise his despair at losing Fabinho for the next two months as he called on his squad players to fill the considerable void left by the Brazilian.
The midfielder will miss the critical Christmas period and Club World Cup because of damaged ankle ligaments.
That will shift responsibility on Naby Keita to start living up to his reputation, while Adam Lallana and the fit-again Xherdan Shaqiri can also expect more game time.
Fabinho was already suspended for today’s visit of Brighton, but with more than 12 matches before the end of January, his influence will be missed.
“We have guys with a lack of minutes for different reasons like Shaq and Naby with injuries and illness,” said Klopp. “These are normal things but we don’t have the biggest squad in the world and now we have two defensive players in Joel
[Matip] and Fabinho with long-term injuries – it’s not cool.”
Klopp’s worst fears were realised when a scan revealed the extent of the damage to Fabinho following the 1-1 draw with Napoli.
“Absolutely bad news. Nothing good to say about that,” said Klopp. “We have solutions for the position, we have to replace him, we can replace him, we have played good without him. That’s all OK.
“We have to find solutions. It’s an opportunity for somebody else. We can change the system. We can do different things. Losing a player with the quality of Fabinho is big, massive, really bad. But we are not the only team in the Premier League with injuries.”
Centre-half Matip is undergoing another scan on a knee injury which has kept him out for the past month.
Meanwhile, Liverpool have unveiled £60million plans for a further expansion to Anfield to increase capacity to 61,000 spectators.
A draft proposal of a two-tiered design as visually striking as the enlarged Main Stand, which opened three years ago, has been revealed ahead of a consultation process with community leaders.
A club statement said they plan to host GAA and American football events in the future, although a spokesman for Croke Park said they have no plans to bring football or hurling games to Anfield.
Their chief operating officer Andy Hughes said: “The plans for the proposed Anfield Road Stand expansion include exploring the opportunity for permanent permission to hold concerts and other major events at Anfield, including other sporting events such as Gaelic games and American football outside of the match-day calendar.”
It is, however, a possibility given the existing link between the Fenway Sports Group (FSG) – that owns Liverpool – and the GAA.
Fenway Park hosted the hurling ‘Super 11s’ in 2015, 2017 and 2018 before it was moved to New York’s Citi Field this year.
“We are still in the development process for the training ground. That is looking to complete this summer so the timing to move on to design, planning and initiation of the Anfield Road development is right now.” (© Daily Telegraph, London)