Liverpool manager, Jurgen Klopp, pinpointed areas his side must improve after a “difficult” win over Southampton in the FA Cup fifth round on Wednesday.
Following a string of injuries to his first team, Klopp has been left with only the bare minimum for the Reds.
The Liverpool manager started youngsters James McConnell, Conor Bradley, Bobby Clark, and Jarell Quansah, substituting Kaide Gordon and Trey Nyoni in the second half.
The German was particularly impressed by scorers Lewis Koumas and Jayden Danns as Liverpool went on to a comfortable 3-0 win.
However, he also talked about having to play defender Joe Gomez in midfield for the first time ever due to a lack of options in an already tightly-packed schedule.
The Problems
He told BBC Sport that “it was a special week for all of us.
“I do the job for a little while and you don’t have weeks like that too often.
“This was a tough game in a horribly difficult situation for us.
“We have to accept it and see who we can line up.
“Today the solution was Joe Gomez playing six for the first time in his life.
“We were all over the place in the first 15 minutes, the pressing was horrendous.
“We had problems and Southampton used that.
“Caoimhin [Kelleher] saved us a lot with top saves.
“After 15 minutes the high press got a lot better, the midfield press we tried to sort at half-time.
“Football is not easy and if you’ve got momentum you’ve got to keep it.
“We got it back and scored two wonderful goals in the second half.
“Danns you could see that second goal coming, he has that nose.
“We saw it in the final.
“He had that luck, and he was there to score that goal.
“It was a wonderful game to watch”.
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The Win
However, the win on the night meant that the Merseyside club moved one step closer to their dream of winning the quadruple, having already won the Carabao Cup despite a slew of injuries to the squad that has seen players like Mohamed Salah, Andy Robertson, Kostas Tsimikas, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Dominik Szoboszlai, Ryan Gravenberch, Wataru Endo, Curtis Jones, Thiago Alcantara and Stefan Bajcetic out for some duration on and off this season.
Also, Klopp will have to rally his troops yet again for another quick turnaround, as they travel to City Ground to take on Nottingham Forest on Saturday, March 2.
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