Jurgen Klopp explains one ‘perfect situation’ Liverpool’s squad currently has

Jurgen Klopp believes that Liverpool have the ‘perfect’ number of midfielders available.

The Reds have had their struggles in the engine room this campaign. As a consequence, they sit just ninth in the Premier League and face a battle to finish in the top four.

Liverpool make the trip to Brighton on Sunday in the FA Cup fourth - just two weeks after suffering a humbling 3-0 loss on the south coast.

But in the Reds’ past two games, Klopp has stuck with a midfield three of Thiago Alcantara, Naby Keita and 18-year-old Stefan Bajcetic.

Jordan Henderson, James Milner, Fabinho, Curtis Jones and Harvey Elliott are all fit to the trip to the Amex Stadium. And Klopp is happy with his options.

He said: “Obviously we had injuries after Brighton, or little niggles in there, so it was clear that we had to change anyway. I liked the rhythm; I liked the mix of offensive things and defensive readiness – I liked that. It was not the three alone, because the three alone can do nothing, but the front lines did that really good as well, that’s really important to us.

“There are specific things an opponent is doing, it’s not that each opponent offers absolutely everything and you have no clue what they’re doing. Sometimes that can happen, but lesser with quality teams. Just with teams they try to survive then you don’t know really what you prepare for – but it’s Brighton [and] a lot of things are clear what they are doing. You have to respect that and defend that.

“If you don’t do that then you are screwed, there is no doubt about it. The midfield three, it just worked well for these games. We will see who will start [on] Sunday. It’s not about against anybody, or whatever. It’s just the boys in the moment train, it’s not about the midfielders – they all show up. They obviously all want to play, so that’s good. And my job is then to make the decision, let’s see how it works best and then we have five opportunities to change.

“For me it’s exactly the same importance [between] how we start and how we finish a game. It’s exactly the same. The players might be slightly different... for me it’s the same importance. So, we have six [or] seven midfielders in top shape. Perfect situation. You play a system now, or used to play now for a while, [where] only three can start. But then you cannot make mistakes, let me say that, with line-ups. That’s good. That’s actually a situation I want to be in again.”