Jurgen Klopp gives an update regarding a shoulder injury that Andy Robertson picked up during international duty after he collided with Spanish goalkeeper Unai Simon.
When asked about the seriousness of the injury, Klopp responded:
“The decision will go towards surgery. There was a little chance he could try without, but after talking to experts, it looks like surgery will be the best thing in the long term and that means he is out for a while.
“I don’t know exact for how long, but shoulder surgery is not an easy one.
“In my experience, he can train pretty quickly again but not football-specific because he has to be careful, there are challenges and all these kinds of thing. He will be out for a while.”
Reinforcements seems to be light at the left-back position with Kostas Tsimikas the only obvious choice but Klopp is confident in his youth and makeshift players:
“Thank God it’s not only Kostas we have like that because otherwise with the amount of games we have, we would be short.
“Joe Gomez can play the position. Luke Chambers and other young boys who are showing up in training quite frequently.
“You need options and Kostas is the most experienced, which is good. But he cannot play all the games for now on so we need other options and we have to make sure we can use all of them.”
Klopp spoke ahead of the Merseyside derby and was asked about his wonderful record against Everton:
“It’s rather uncomfortable if you tell me about my good record because I couldn’t be less interest in what happened. If you won a game a week ago, a month ago, a year ago, 10 years ago, I couldn’t care. It’s not important.
“We make sure we don’t think about these things, these records, we just make sure we’re really ready. We understand the importance of the game, the pressure that comes with it.
“I can’t remember one moment where I thought ‘this weekend is the derby’ and I enjoyed that thought. For us, there’s a lot of intensity before the first ball is kicked.
“You have to make sure you challenge that in the right areas with all the extra motivation from outside, and make sure you play the way you want to play.
“In moments, Everton certainly deserve respect. Calvert-Lewin is back, who is a super important player for them. Doucoure is back to his best with Harrison and McClean on the wings, that’s real quality.
“Onana and Gueye are real talent and super experienced. With Branthwaite, he’s a good left-footed centre-half and England’s No.1 in goal.
“I understand ‘the derby’ but I cannot prepare a one-off game, we have to make sure we play our best. The Merseyside derby is a special game, a high-pressure game and they have all played them.
“They are all used to the kind of game, but not the exact game. I can’t change it now, I can’t show a movie of how it will be they were all different as well. I don’t think we should make too big for them. I think they are ready for it.
“When experienced players leave the club, you have to make new experiences yourselves and we will do.”
“The [previous Merseyside derbies] were all difficult for different reasons. I don’t think it makes too much sense to compare other derbies with this derby because it was a different team and different manager.
“Let’s look at the facts and they are that Everton is in a good moment. It was a difficult finish of the season, but successful because they stayed in and then the start was not that easy, but since three or four weeks they’ve got the results and before that, they had the performances at least.
“They will be difficult to defend, we have to be ready for second ball fights, we have to be ready for runs in behind, compact defence, all of these things.
“It will be a tough one, derbies and Premier League games always are. We have to make sure we’re in this football understanding and are patient enough. We have to put a proper shift in, take the fight and go for it.”
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