Klopp Talk: Wijnaldum “Absolutely Brilliant”

Gini Wijnaldum was superb against Bournemouth yesterday, and yet he almost didn’t play.

Suffering a bad illness, it was touch and go for whether the Dutchman would be available, Klopp admitted.

“We had difficulties”, the manager said of his midfield options. “Before the West Ham game, we had Hendo [Jordan Henderson] out, Gini out, and then Milly [James Milner] was not in the team hotel because he was ill, but he played. Then we didn’t perform that well and people were talking about him.

“Then last night Gini was not in the team hotel because he had pretty much everything you don’t want to have the night before a game!

”That’s the news you get in the morning, before the last session of the week. Then he said after a couple of hours’ sleep that he felt really good and could play, but the doc said he is still infectious so stay away.

“I was only concerned today when he scored a goal and everybody give him a hug, to be honest! That was a problem.”

Speaking a bit more of the general squad situation, the manager stated that “It’s the same as Milly’s character, but nobody spoke about it. I heard some people were critical of Milly’s performance last week which is just a joke to be honest, after all the fantastic games he’s played.

“Now Gini today, it was obvious that he was very, very good today. And that’s how the boys are. Absolutely brilliant.

“Hendo trained twice, and the medical department said to him ‘in the first session train with 70 per cent and in the second train with 85 per cent’. Try to do that! Not make a 100 per cent sprint. That’s why we didn’t bring him today, because he couldn’t really train.

It’s obvious that Liverpool have had some injuries recently. We obviously hope these will ease up, but the performance yesterday suggested the players are feeling closer to 100% again.