As expected, Jurgen Klopp has sent Pep Lijnders to do his press conference ahead of the Carabao Cup final on Sunday.
It was interesting to hear what the Liverpool assistant manager thought of Chelsea and the threat we pose. He was particularly keen on our midfield:
“They have Gallagher, who is a proper number 10 from the Academy, a proper leader I think and but he is somebody who’s a 10 but gets his shirt dirty as well. Caicedo and Enzo in the middle really making the game, Enzo is the one if you let him free, he can play passes everywhere.
“I think the instability at the beginning of the season, a lot happened there, so how can you expect them to perform straight away? They are growing. I think the manager is doing an unbelievable job and if I think he has finally found his 11.”
Of course, you can always expect an opposition manager to talk us up. That’s their job, to make sure their team are switched on and ready for a tough game.
But Lijnders was on the bench a couple of weeks ago when the Reds totally schooled us at Anfield. He can talk about our quality all he wants, he must be very confident that his team can repeat the trick at Wembley.
As for our best XI – Pochettino is certainly closer than ever to reaching it, but there are big questions still remaining. The fact that Thiago Silva is out injured actually solves one of those big questions for us.
