Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has denied that wantaway Brazilian Philippe Coutinho refused to play for the club in the opening matches of the season. Coutinho submitted a transfer request in August amidst a series of bids from Barcelona.
Coutinho is yet to appear for Liverpool this season, with the club citing a back injury. However, Coutinho was able to play for Brazil during the international break. The player was left out of the Reds’ 5-0 defeat to Manchester City on Saturday.
But Klopp denies that there was anything untoward in his omissions from the team, “I can explain it a little – maybe a few of you have had a split in a good relationship, with your wife or whatever, and it is not good to think about the time you were split,” said Klopp.
“It was not the easiest time, but that is the transfer window. It is not the first time and it won’t be the last time in history when similar things will happen.
“I really think we handled it really well,” he said. “Not all the things in newspapers were 100 per cent right but it is normal a lot of things were coming up in a situation like this.
“But nothing I am aware of was unforgivable. The most important thing is no one told me anything where I thought ‘Oh, that is too much’.
“He came in yesterday, accepted 100 per cent the situation – I didn’t even have to say anything about it.”