What an awful week it has been for Liverpool, but most football fans will be absolutely astonished by the simply whiffy excuse Jurgen Klopp used to reason their exit from the FA Cup at the hands of Premier League rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers on Monday night.
In a miserable few days which saw title contenders Manchester City close the gap to just four points at the top of the tree thanks to a 2-1 win at the Etihad Stadium, Wolves piled on the misery by shoving the Reds out of the FA Cup by the same scoreline, thanks to a stunning Ruben Neves strike.
In his post-match autopsy, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp’s words were hard to swallow;
“We had a few players ill after City game.
We had to make late changes so it doesn’t help.
Wind didn’t help, players struggled to control ball.
Game looked a little different when we brought Mo (Salah) and Bobby (Firmino) on but we couldn’t start them.”
That makes for some extremely breezy chat from the German. The late challenges were of course excusable, with Klopp handing a debut to 16-year-old centre-back Ki-Jana Hoever.
‘Wind’ however, is literally just air.
With Wolves fans in good voice and audibly taunting ‘you’re not singing anymore’ at the Molineux to the silent Liverpool fans, many Reds will understandably be wondering how long the singing will indeed stop for.
Liverpool will look to plough on with their strongest title challenge in years by trekking to Brighton & Hove Albion this weekend.
Wolves, meanwhile, will be quite content in taking on either Shrewsbury Town or Stoke City away in the fourth round of the FA Cup.