Jurgen Klopp insists he and his Liverpool side are not focusing on the current injuries woes within Arsenal’s back four and says his side will not be lulled into a false sense of security.
The Reds’ opponents in their Premier League opener have a number of key defenders sidelined for Sunday’s game, with Arsene Wenger confirming on Friday that defender Laurent Koscielny will miss the game.
Per Mertesacker and Gabriel are injured, meaning Wenger can only choose from a trio of young centre-backs in summer signing Rob Holding, Calum Chambers and and 18-year-old Krystian Bielik for their start to the season.
Klopp was unsure how the Gunners would line up in defence but said it is not something that his men are pondering.
“I have no idea what exactly they will do,” the German told a news conference. “Maybe [Nacho] Monreal played one or two times at centre-half and then [Kieran] Gibbs can play at full-back. Defence problems, if they have, I think it’s maybe the same.
“Maybe they will bring a few other players in and Koscielny is back in one or two weeks, or this week — I don’t know. But defensive problems only play a role in a game when the other team is really strong and offensive.
“They have a lot of wonderful players for their offensive play and it’s only one game. It’s not that they have to play with this team the whole season or we have to play this team season then we could talk about advantages or not. For this one game, it’s not a big role.
“If we would make the first and main mistake, then we’re thinking about if there are defensive problems [for Arsenal]. We didn’t think a second about this. We only think about our play and our game.
“What we saw from them in the preseason [was] their style of play, how they defend, how they attack. We know about how Arsenal usually [are] a football-playing team, and when they played last time against us it was a lot of long balls.
“It caused us a lot of problems in this game 3-3 in the last second. That’s what we think about, not what kind of problems they could have.”
Their clash today will certainly be an interesting one to watch.
ReplyDeleteWish them injury free