Yahoo News Latest Liverpool team news for Aston Villa as Jurgen Klopp admits to Darwin Nunez problem
Jurgen Klopp has addressed talks surrounding Darwin Nunez that have been ongoing ahead of Aston Villa vs Liverpool, admitting that the striker 'is not happy'.
Villa prepare to face the team one place above them in the Premier League standings in this season's penultimate fixture, with different perspectives on the match from the respective camps. On the one hand Villa have Champions League qualification to secure, whilst their opponents hope to send off their successful manager in high spirits.
Whilst Unai Emery went into detail about the fitness of his squad, Klopp had other issues to talk about in his Friday press conference. Nunez was top of the agenda having taken the drastic action of deleting all traces of his club from his social media within the last few days.
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It seems this comes out of frustration for a lack of goals in recent matches and not a desire to leave this summer, as Klopp stated: "There is no speculation. It must be an external speculation because I don’t know about it, but maybe, I’m not involved in it anymore. There is no speculation right now. It is just the situation we are in.
"Yes, Darwin was definitely not happy missing that chance. He is, let me say was because that could have changed now, unlucky in so many situations where he is doing everything right and then the ball still doesn’t go in.
"That’s really tough for a young man, it’s really tough. He knows about expectations, he has big expectations on himself. That’s tough. And you have to go through this.
"There is no alternative than going through it and that is what he is doing right now. We are trying to help him with everything we can, but in the end, you have to go through. Everybody has to go through this, it’s part of a footballer’s career. That’s all."
The Liverpool manager also answered questions that gave a hint to his preferred defensive selection at present. Last week it was 21-year-old Jarell Quansah that was handed the starting spot ahead of Ibrahima Konate, and whilst this 'doesn't mean the latter isn't training well', the 56-year-old 'has to make a decision' based on what he sees during the week.
Young full-back recently returned to the Liverpool bench after a small knock, and it remains unknown whether Diogo Jota has recovered in time from the problem he picked up after scoring against Fulham in mid-April.
