Liverpool squad ‘best I’ve coached’, says Klopp

LONDON: Jurgen Klopp says his current Liverpool squad is the strongest he has ever worked with as the players prepare for a return to action after a warm-weather training camp in Spain.

Despite the sale of Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona for £142 million ($192 million) last month, the former Mainz and Borussia Dortmund boss said it was difficult to leave players out.

Last week’s 5-0 thrashing of Porto in the last-16 of the Champions League was achieved without the suspended Emre Can and long-term injured Nathaniel Clyne but there was still no room in the matchday 18 for the likes of Dominic Solanke, Ragnar Klavan and Ben Woodburn, the youngest scorer in the club’s history.

The result means Liverpool, who host West Ham in the Premier League on Saturday, have virtually ensured a first Champions League quarter-final for nine years, with the second leg at Anfield now a formality.

“It’s really hard in the moment to make the squad,” Klopp told the club’s TV channel, LFCTV. “Wow, I’ve never had a situation like that with the quality of the players not being in the squad.“They all have made really big steps. It’s difficult, it’s getting more and more difficult, but that’s good for us of course.”