Jurgen Klopp rued the incorrect advice he received that has left Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Naby Keita ineligible to play for Liverpool in the Champions League group stages.
Liverpool chose to omit the two midfielders from the 24-man squad they named in early September as they thought that neither would be fit for their six matches in Group A.
But while Oxlade-Chamberlain was able to come off the bench in Saturday’s defeat to Nottingham Forest and Keita has resumed training, neither is registered to face Ajax on Wednesday.
And Liverpool will be without two other midfielders, with Arthur Melo a long-term absentee and Thiago Alcantara still suffering with the ear infection that forced him to miss the Forest game.
Defender Ibrahima Konate is set to be on the bench after recovering from injury and Klopp suggested Keita and Oxlade-Chamberlain could have joined him there.
“Ibou trained properly the first time [on Monday],” he said. “He wasn’t long out but he has a muscle thing. I’m not sure it makes sense for him to play 95 minutes. Same with Naby, he needs to train, same with Oxlade.
“They are both not in the Champions League squad because everybody told me they would be out but now they are back, which is good, but not back to play, just to be around and play a few minutes. But Curtis [Jones] is back, a few others are back which is helpful. No complaints, no moans, it’s just the situation.”
Klopp said Thiago was “not close” and could be a doubt for Saturday’s match with Leeds but that Darwin Nunez, who was not involved at Forest because of a minor hamstring problem, is fit to return.
Liverpool will qualify for the last 16 of the Champions League if they avoid defeat against Ajax but are only eighth in the Premier League and Klopp said a stop-start campaign has been partly caused by missing players and the lack of continuity in his side.
“Injuries are a little bit [of an explanation],” he said. “Injuries are a little bit, but in the very beginning, we played against [Manchester] City, played very well, then started the Premier League against Fulham and didn’t play well.
“Then we played against Crystal Palace at home, played well for very early in the season, but got a red card and drew the game. Then already we were a little bit playing catch-up with everything.
“We were in a good moment until we lost to Forest: strange game, some players were injured, some were not allowed to play but were there, let me put it like this.
“For ‘clicking’ you need consistency in the line-up as well, and at the moment we cannot do that. Not at all. Could we sort problems, bigger, smaller?
“It starts with injuries, but then the players who have no injuries have to play too often and the players who come back from injuries have to play too early. And they come back and play, and they have another ‘thing’, and the medical department tells you they cannot play more than 20 minutes, they shouldn’t do this, shouldn’t do that, these kind of things. And then you’ve got a Premier League game against a team with a knife in their teeth. That’s tricky.”
