Jurgen Klopp makes "not easy" admission but makes no excuses for Liverpool struggles

Jurgen Klopp has insisted that Liverpool’s squad is not too small - but he admitted that the injury problems have been too big this season.

The Reds boss has been left juggling his side again as he faces up to another selection dilemma, with at least nine players unavailable to start in Amsterdam for the Champions League showdown with Ajax on Wednesday. It could see him selecting an unusual formation with either Curtis Jones or Harvey Elliott to the left of a three behind lone striker Darwin Nunez - if he is actually fit.

And speaking in his press conference on Tuesday night, the German boss said: “We play a good game and then two players are out after it, and another is not available for longer than 20 minutes! Wow. That’s not easy with the squad we have.

“But our squad is not too small, just too many injuries. Now, we have enough players here, good news for all who are with us, and hopefully tomorrow (Wednesday) that is still the case. For ‘clicking’ you need consistency in the line-up as well, and at the moment we cannot do that. Not at all.”

Klopp believes that is because - with 10 injuries at the start of the season, and a similar number now - it places too great a burden on the fit players he does have to choose from.

“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,” he added.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp during a training session on Tuesday (PA)

“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. That situation is not sorted overnight.

“Yes players are coming back, but you ask me if Ibou is ready to play. He trained properly yesterday. He was not out long, but he had a muscle thing, so does it make sense to put him straight in for 95 minutes? Same with Naby, he needs to train. Oxlade, needs to train.”