Jurgen Klopp has left Philippe Coutinho out of Liverpool’s squad for the Premier League game with Manchester City.
Coutinho has not featured for the Reds this season. His move to Barcelona failed to materialise int he summer as Liverpool refused three bids for the Brazilian.
A back injury was the reason given for Coutinho early season absence. Klopp says the playmaker was not able to train properly for three weeks prior to the international break:
“I had to make a decision because we now have 7 games in the next 3 weeks.
“Before he went to Brazil he couldn’t train for around about 3 weeks.
“That means we have to now prepare him for the rest of the season, which is difficult with our fixtures and our schedule.
“So I decided to leave him out for City. We can use this four or five days for real and proper training.
“We got the numbers from the Brazilian FA around the intensity of training which was all okay. But he played twice for 15-20 minutes.
“He could have played 15-20 minutes for us again in the City game, maybe longer, but I think it makes sense. By the way he agreed completely and it was a good conversation.”
