Steven Caulker joined us back in January on a six-month loan deal from QPR after spending the first half of the season on loan at Southampton.
At the time the deal made sense – we were in the midst of a defensive injury crisis but Klopp was reluctant to dip into the typically extortionate January transfer market.
Martin Skrtel, Dejan Lovren, Joe Gomez, Mamadou Sakho, and Kolo Toure were all sidelined, and our German boss claimed at the time that “We are absolutely convinced that Steven is the right solution for us.” (via Echo).
However, it now seems he’s forgotten all about him!
In the aftermath of our 2-2 draw with Newcastle on Saturday Klopp was asked about who could potentially replace Sakho in the back four between now and the end of the season.
“We have Martin, Dejan, Kolo, Lucas, Tiago Ilori, we have a few players who can play centre half,” was his response. No mention of the 24-year-old Caulker.
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To add further mystery, Caulker hasn’t been in a matchday squad since the first leg against Augsburg in mid-January. In fact, he’s started just one game (in the FA Cup) and made three sub appearances totalling a mere four minutes. All three of those he was brought on in attack.
However, with Sakho out and Flanagan not in the Europa League squad, could Caulker be a surprise inclusion in the squad this Thursday? Time will tell…