Boss ready to call on international contingent for derby
Jürgen Klopp is confident Liverpool's international contingent are fit and fine for Saturday's meeting with Everton at Anfield.
A host of Reds players have spent much of the past fortnight on duty for their countries, with Philippe Coutinho and Roberto Firmino notably away in South America.
But all have now returned to base ahead of the 228th Merseyside derby this weekend and – aside from the injured Adam Lallana – the manager expects to call on a strong squad.
“They’re OK for this weekend. How fresh, we will see on Saturday,” Klopp explained at his pre-match press conference.
“The Brazilians had the longest trip and they came back the day before yesterday. The club did everything to bring them back as soon as possible.
“They had the most comfortable kind of trip you can have; otherwise they would land now and that would make absolutely no sense. That’s why we had to do this.
“They obviously had success – [Brazil] the first team to qualify for the World Cup. So they were really smiling. Both looked good; I saw parts of the games, they looked good, very important for us.
“It’s good that there’s now a derby, so we don’t have to think about anything – who we can rest, who we should rest or whatever. We will bring all that we have, if you want.
“If no player comes to me today or tomorrow morning and says ‘I’m really not well’, then we will do what we can to bring the best line-up of course.
“All the other players, most of them had quite good results. Sadio [Mane], only friendly games but good; Ragnar Klavan, maybe the best international break for a long time for Estonia; young players could play; Joe Gomez could play. There were a lot of good things. They all came back and, apart from Adam, nobody with big issues.”
LFCTV GO: Klopp's pre-Everton press conference in full