Klopp not to blame for injury crisis, says Liverpool’s Lallana

REUTERS – Liverpool’s injury woes have nothing to do with a change in training methods under manager Juergen Klopp, midfielder Adam Lallana has said.

Liverpool beat Stoke City 1-0 in their League Cup semi-final first leg on Tuesday night, but the win was marred by hamstring injuries to midfielder Philippe Coutinho and centre-back Dejan Lovren, leaving Klopp with 11 players on the treatment table.

Daniel Sturridge, Martin Skrtel, Divock Origi and Jordan Rossiter are also nursing hamstring problems, and critics have sought to blame the manager’s high-pressing style and the intensity of his training sessions for the injuries.

Lallana, however, sprang to his manager’s defence and refused to blame Klopp for the injuries.

“Sometimes you are just unlucky with injuries and we’ve had a lot of bad luck recently,” he told the club’s website (www.liverpoolfc.com).

“I know from my time at Liverpool that we’ve got a world class medical team here. We certainly can’t point the finger at anyone.

“We have had a change of manager this season. When that happens lads look to impress more and give more. But I don’t think these injuries have got anything to do with any changes to our training.”

The midfielder pointed instead to the club’s crowded fixture list as a more likely cause and said Liverpool’s misfortune was part of a wider trend in the Premier League.

“We’ve had so many games recently that we’ve mainly been doing recovery sessions between games so it’s not as if the training has been really intensive. You can’t blame that,” he said.

“Look at the amount of games we’ve had over the Christmas period.

“If you look at teams around the league, I bet you’ll find the number of injuries has definitely increased.”

(Reporting by Simon Jennings in Bengaluru; editing by Amlan Chakraborty)