Liverpool FC Thread #146:- Back to drawing board!

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Liverpool's failure to beat Sevilla in the Champions League was enough to reduce Roberto Firmino to tears at the final whistle.

The Reds fought back from conceding an early goal to Wissam Ben Yedder to go 2-1 up after strikes from Firmino and Mohamed Salah.

And Liverpool 's first-half dominance could have been more had Firmino not missed a penalty.

Firmino sent goalkeeper Sergio Rico the wrong way but could only direct his spot-kick on to the post moments before half time.

The Brazil international, who has taken over penalty-taking duty this season, sunk to his knees after seeing his effort strike the woodwork from 12 yards.

The Reds' first-half profligacy came back to haunt them in the second period as Joaquin Correa levelled things up to leave Jurgen Klopp's men with just a point from their opening game in the Champions League.



Cameras from BT Sport captured Firmino looking visibly upset at the final whistle, and he appeared to be in tears as he shook hands with a number of the Sevilla squad.

Elsewhere in Group E, Spartak Moscow and Maribor drew 1-1 and the Reds continue their campaign when they travel to Russia later this month.

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Liverpool's principal owner John W Henry has been urged to sign Southampton defender Virgil van Dijk when the January transfer window opens.

Footage has emerged online of a Liverpool fan imploring the American to sign the £60m-rated defender when the transfer window opens next year.

A Twitter user with the handle @GaroTheArmo uploaded the footage of the unnamed fan shouting at Henry at a recent baseball game, asking him to buy Van Dijk next year.

"Sign Virgil van Dijk in January!" shouts the Reds fan.

"It's the right thing to do. He wants to play for us."

FSG chief Henry appears to look in the direction of the supporter but doesn't acknowledge the message during what is believed to be a Boston Red Sox baseball game earlier this month.

The Reds were interested in the centre-back over the summer, but were forced to drop their interest and offer a public apology to Southampton in June after the south-coast club threatened to complain of an alleged tapping up.

Van Dijk later released an explosive statement urging the Saints to allow him to leave and submitted a transfer request.

"Over the past six months, I have held numerous discussions with representatives of the board, the former manager Claude Puel as well as the new manager Mauricio Pellegrino, to inform them all of my desire to leave the club in search of a new challenge," said Van Dijk last month.

"I am incredibly ambitious, and want to achieve as much as I possibly can, to fulfil my potential in what is a very short career as a professional footballer.

"I want to play European football again, and challenge for major honours, and as such I would like Southampton to consider the interest in me from top clubs should it still exist."

Southampton held firm however , and the defender, who hasn't played a first-team game since January, recently returned to the fold at St Mary's.

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Jürgen Klopp has confirmed Philippe Coutinho is in contention to start Saturday’s Premier League clash with Burnley at Anfield.

The playmaker made his first appearance of 2017-18 for the Reds as a second-half substitute against Sevilla on Wednesday evening.

And with Sadio Mane suspended for the visit of the Clarets, Klopp is confident Coutinho’s fitness is at the required level for him to be considered for a berth in his XI.

The manager told his pre-match press conference: “You can build up and get minutes when you start.

“It’s not the moment where I talk about the line-up of tomorrow, but he should be ready.

“It was really nice how the crowd welcomed him [against Sevilla]. Nobody was 100 per cent sure about this, but I am really happy that we were, as a Liverpool family, sensitive enough to do it exactly like this. I think it was good for him.

“How I’ve said, he has trained outstanding in the few sessions we’ve had so far together since he was back.

“The game was not perfect of course, but that’s how it is after a long break. It helped him and helped us and for sure he is ready [for us] to think about.”

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Jürgen Klopp is confident he has enough quality options at his disposal for the suspension of Sadio Mane not to significantly deplete Liverpool’s attacking thrust.

The forward will begin a three-man ban against Burnley on Saturday following his red card against Manchester City at the Etihad last weekend.

However, Klopp feels with the likes of Philippe Coutinho and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to call upon, as well as Roberto Firmino’s ability to play on the left, the Reds will retain their considerable forward threat.

“We’ve known for a few days that Sadio will not play and it was clear before the season there will be moments when he cannot play, or should not play maybe in other games,” the manager said at his pre-match press conference.

“That’s how we reacted in building the squad so we have options, enough options. Roberto has already played left-wing, Phil can play there of course, Alex can play there and we have more options, so that’s all good.

“We can change the system, we can do a lot of things. It’s always difficult to replace top-class players in really good shape, but we did it last year at the end of the season when we had to play without him and in most of the games we did really well.”

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Jürgen Klopp has revealed that injured Liverpool duo Adam Lallana and Nathaniel Clyne are still some way from consideration for a first-team return.

Lallana has been out of action since sustaining a thigh injury during the Reds' pre-season meeting with Atletico Madrid in Munich back in August.

Clyne, too, has been absent from the start of the 2017-18 campaign due to a back problem.

When asked for an update on the pair's recovery ahead of his team's weekend meeting with Burnley, Klopp told reporters: "Adam and Clyney are too far away to think about.

"They have to build; maybe Adam can start running this week or the beginning of next week.*

"Clyney is improving a lot but, in the moment when he could start training completely normal - I'm not sure about when it will be - he will need time for a kind of pre-season.*

"That’s the situation."

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Simon Mignolet will return to the Liverpool goal against Burnley on Saturday.

The Belgium international was on the bench for the Champions League clash with Sevilla in midweek as Loris Karius took up duties between the posts for Jürgen Klopp’s side.

But Mignolet is set to resume his position for the Premier League meeting with the Clarets according to the manager, who explained the goalkeeping situation at his pre-match news conference.

“Of course,” said Klopp when asked if the No.22 will play tomorrow.

“That’s how it is. The easiest thing is for me because I’m the boss, I can decide things like this and players have to take it.

“If you ask a goalkeeper, ‘What do you think if I play Loris next game?’ and he says ‘That’s a good idea, I already wanted to come into your office and ask you for that’, something would be really wrong.

“I have said it: we need strong goalkeepers. We cannot every year find a new No.2 or No.3 or whatever and say ‘OK, now they are too young to want to play them but they are cool enough to sit on the bench the whole season, or they are that old that they don’t want to play anymore but if we need them they have to perform on the highest level.’

“We have young goalkeepers in the best age and they all are ready to play, all of them. So we have to use this situation for the good of the club and the team. That’s how it is and they take it.”

The boss continued: “Simon Mignolet is No.1. I said it already. At the end of the season, he will have 85 or 87 per cent of all games I think. For me, that is the No.1.

“There will be other games, like the last one in the Champions League, where Loris Karius plays. Because he played against Arsenal, I think he was really ready and he played really well.

“Obviously the crowd needs to get a little bit used to his style of play but this is modern football; he takes the ball and he has cool build-up. I can’t remember one mistake, so he is in good shape and is a good goalkeeper – good for us, that’s all.”

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There will be at least two changes to the Liverpool line-up when they resume their Premier League campaign by hosting Burnley at Anfield.

Simon Mignolet is set to return in goal for the Reds, Jürgen Klopp confirmed at his pre-match news conference, having been a substitute for Wednesday’s Champions League clash with Sevilla.

The home side are without the services of Sadio Mane against the Clarets, however, as the Senegal international begins a three-match domestic suspension following his red card at Manchester City.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain awaits a full Liverpool debut after two substitute appearances.

Meanwhile, Philippe Coutinho is in contention to start on Saturday.

The No.10 was introduced from the bench in midweek, and Klopp said: “He should be ready. He has trained outstanding in the few sessions we’ve had so far together since he was back.”

Nathaniel Clyne and Adam Lallana remain ‘too far away to think about’ a return as they continue their rehabilitations from respective back and thigh injuries.

Burnley will travel to Merseyside without their captain, Tom Heaton, after the goalkeeper suffered a shoulder injury last weekend and subsequently underwent surgery.

Summer signing Chris Wood has scored in each of their past two outings – a winner against Crystal Palace and previously an equaliser at Wembley to secure a draw with Tottenham Hotspur.

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Klopp on TAA and Gomez

Trent is not ready to play two games every week. He was tired against Hoffenheim [late on]. Joe has had two similar situations, he was a bit too deep [for Sevilla equaliser]. The boys have to improve, but they are our boys. It is no problem.

These boys are so exciting and I cannot believe we would bring a shadow of doubt to their development. They are already top-class players. What’s the problem?”

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Klopp on Burnley threat

They have four points from Chelsea and Tottenham, so nobody should consider this game easy tomorrow.

There are not a lot of easy situations you can outplay them, so we need to make the right decision. It’s really interesting to play them because they are always on a really high level, since I’ve known them.

Maybe the best game we played against them was when we lost 2-0. It’s not that we think about these games.

Everybody should know about this; if we are all ready for work, it can be really good.”