Jurgen Klopp admits that he is none the wiser about the injuries Alisson Becker and Diogo Jota picked up in Liverpool’s 1-1 draw with Manchester City.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has admitted that he is in the dark about the severity of Alisson Becker and Diogo Jota‘s injuries from the Reds’ 1-1 Premier League draw with Manchester City.
Both men dropped to the turf with leg injuries in the second half of the contest at the Etihad, as Jota – who was given the nod alongside Mohamed Salah and Darwin Nunez again – was taken off early in the second half for Luis Diaz.
Meanwhile, Alisson – who experienced an off day in the Liverpool goal with a few uncharacteristic mistakes – was seen clutching the back of his leg just before City took an injury-time corner, although Klopp had already made his five substitutions by that point and could not call upon Caoimhin Kelleher to see out the final few seconds.
As a result, Alisson was forced to soldier on as Liverpool just about dealt with the champions’ final set piece, but Klopp is still none the wiser about either man’s apparent leg issue.
Speaking to reporters in his post-game press conference, Klopp said: “The shadow on this game is obviously that Ali felt something and Diogo felt something – something we have to assess and then we will see.”
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The Reds boss also confirmed that Alisson would be sent for a scan imminently, adding: “I hope it’s not that serious, but I don’t have the answer – no clue in the moment what it is. I spoke to him and he said he only felt [it] a little bit, but we have to wait for the scan.”
Alisson was one of three South American players given the green light to start for Liverpool in the tantalising lunchtime battle, where a victory would have seen the Reds rise above the treble winners into first place.
The ex-Roma shot-stopper was made to pay for one of his errors in the 27th minute, though, as he slipped while taking a goal kick and only cleared the ball as far as Nathan Ake, who evaded Trent Alexander-Arnold and Dominik Szoboszlai before playing through Erling Haaland for his 50th Premier League goal.
The City backline comfortably dealt with Liverpool’s futile attacks over the next 50 minutes and thought that they had doubled their lead when Ruben Dias tapped home at the back post from a corner, but Alisson – who let the ball seep through his palms – was adjudged to have been fouled by Manuel Akanji.
The hosts’ inability to extend their lead would come back to bite them in the 80th minute, though, as Alexander-Arnold surged forward and found the bottom corner with aplomb to steal a point for the Reds.
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Klopp insisted that he could not fault his team’s attitude, but he feels that some individual displays left something to be desired, adding: “I’m not silly, I see the game, so if you ask me who would have won the game more likely, it was City obviously.
“But we had our moments and we won games with lesser chances against City, to be honest, from counter-attacking – and if we could have used them better then it would have been a very interesting game.
“We don’t check if we are as good as City. We want to be ready in these games to give them a proper game, and that’s what we did today. It’s not that I look at ourselves and think, ‘OK, that’s the finished article, that’s how we can play’ because I saw a lot of performances I was not overly happy with; the attitude was still good, but the performance.
“But it’s a super-difficult week, how can you judge that? Ten days away, coming back, one training [session] and the most difficult game. It’s really tricky.”
Liverpool and Man City are now at risk of being leapfrogged by Arsenal if the Gunners can defeat London rivals Brentford on Saturday evening, and Klopp’s side have four full days to rest before meeting LASK Linz in the Europa League on Thursday.
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