Klopp to play youngsters again

Jürgen Klopp confirmed Liverpool will once field a second string side for tonight's FA Cup tie with Exeter City at Anfield.

Klopp elected to make 11 changes for the original meeting with Exeter on January 8 in a game that ended in an enthralling 2-2 draw at St James Park.

The manager confirmed he is likely to select a similar line-up this time around, with several of the club’s Academy graduates and youngsters likely to be given another opportunity.

“There are different things we have to talk about and it is not always injury situations,” said Klopp.

“We’ve had a few players in the squads for the games against Manchester United and Arsenal that were injured a few weeks ago.

“We have to think about for who it makes sense and for who it’s not too dangerous or difficult to start again. We have to build a squad with players who are in a situation to win the game, to help us, where there’s not too much doubt about [recurring] injuries and things like this.

“That’s the first thing we have to think about before the Exeter game, so it will be a similar team to last time.”

Klopp was eager to insist that his decision to make changes is purely an attempt to maintain freshness within his squad due to their hectic fixture schedule as he stressed Liverpool’s commitment to trying to win the competition.

The boss added: “We will do everything. I can tell you, if someone thinks we’re playing with the team we will play because we don’t think the FA Cup is the most important competition it would be the biggest misunderstanding in the world.

“We have some injuries. You see always when we are fresh in mind and legs that we’re able to perform, and you can see we are more than competitive, in the game and we create chances. Then there’s the next game and we have to decide if it’s too much for a player? Can we change or not or do we have to try it again like this? All these decisions we have to make and that’s normal.

“Of course it would be better if we would have had more opportunities, but we don’t have that in this moment so we will play now tomorrow with a team with fresh legs. We want to go to the next round, but it is not easy – we saw that at Exeter – but it’ll be a different game. We’ll try to take the chance to go to the next round and then we have the next game at Norwich.”

See also: 6,000 Exeter fans head to Anfield http://www.theexeterdaily.co.uk/news/business-daily-local-news/6000-exeter-fans-head-anfield