Jürgen Klopp has said he will not compromise Liverpool’s attacking instincts in order to prevent Eden Hazard punishing his Premier League leaders at Stamford Bridge.
The Chelsea forward condemned Liverpool to a first defeat of the season on Wednesday with a brilliant late winner in the Carabao Cup. The teams meet again on Saturday when Liverpool can establish a five-point lead over Maurizio Sarri’s side with a seventh consecutive victory in the Premier League.
Despite the obvious threat of Hazard and his impact at Anfield, Klopp insists his gameplan will not include man-marking the Belgium international. The Liverpool manager believes his team can take encouragement from the number of clear chances they created in the cup tie and that this, as well as collective defending against Hazard, can help them “strike back” against Chelsea.
“When Dortmund played Real Madrid [in the 2013 Champions League semi-final] I played Mario Götze against Xabi Alonso but no, I will not man-mark Hazard, because he is much more flexible,” Klopp said. “He is all over the park. With Xabi Alonso it was clear where he was playing. That is a big difference. I have the biggest respect for this player. I love it, what a player, but it is not to defend alone. Yes it is difficult, but we have to do all the things around it: close spaces, make passes more difficult.
“I think one of our biggest chances on Wednesday came when we won the ball off Hazard. When Daniel [Sturridge] hit the crossbar, I think it came from Hendo [Jordan Henderson] winning the ball, past the next one, Daniel has the ball – crossbar. All these things are possible. It is about what we do. In the game against Real Madrid it was still a very front foot approach. Mario played a really good game against Alonso that day. Alonso should have been sent off for two ugly challenges by the way but he wasn’t. It worked that day.”
Virgil van Dijk was sorely missed in the Liverpool defence in midweek and the Netherlands captain has been unable to train this week because of a rib injury. Klopp will give the influential defender a fitness test before finalising his selection at Chelsea and insists Van Dijk will play with pain if necessary.
“I will decide if he plays,” he said. “If the player goes out and says ‘No chance,’ then I cannot decide, but in all other situations I will decide. Virgil will try everything to be ready and I know how this sounds but as long as you are not seriously injured, like something broken or ruptured or a proper strain, then the boys play constantly with pain. And if you have no pain before the game then you will have it after the first challenge. That is how football is. It is important how you deal with the pain and how strong is the pain, but if he is able to deal with it then he can play.”
