Liverpool are back in the Premier League Cup final after six years. Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp dismissed the notion that he was not serious in this competition.
Liverpool qualified for the English League Cup final after eliminating Arsenal in the semifinals. The Reds won 2-0 in the semifinal second leg match at the Emirates Stadium, Friday (21/1/2022) early morning WIB, after the first leg at Anfield ended in a goalless draw.
This is Liverpool’s first final in the English League Cup since 2016. Previously, the last time Liverpool were in the final of this competition was in 2015/2016 which was also Klopp’s first season with The Reds.
Klopp is often criticized for underestimating the Premier League Cup by frequently fielding a back-up team, including many young players. This season, Liverpool assistant manager Pepijn Lijnders has also replaced Klopp several times at press conferences.
Klopp denied the allegations. Regarding the players who were revealed in the English League Cup, Klopp had a reason.
“No, that’s not true,” Klopp said when asked if this was the first time he had taken this competition seriously Mirror.
“The situation is always around when? Who can play? How many games have they played?” continued the German manager.
“I can’t pick a team just by looking at the squad on paper and picking 11 players based on that. We have to consider a lot of things and we always have, but you need luck at certain times and specific moments.”
“We’ve never had that and we’ve always had a tricky draw and we couldn’t start the Premier League line-up (in the cup competition) three days before (the league game).”
“It’s not always unlucky, but the draw is always not the easiest. So it doesn’t matter, we want to chase everyone. It’s not that we’re already champions, but we’ll be there at the end of February but unfortunately the opponents are like that too,” said Klopp.
Liverpool will face Chelsea in the English League Cup final. The match will be played at Wembley Stadium on 27 February.
(nds/krs)
