Jurgen Klopp and his Liverpool side have long endured criticism over their approach with the League Cup.
The German refuted the suspicions of several journalists claiming that the Merseysiders don’t take the Carabao Cup seriously, pointing to his squad’s prior struggles with injuries.
“I’m sure you [journalists] thought once or twice that I couldn’t be bothered about the Carabao Cup. I know that,” the former Borussia Dortmund head coach told The Times.
“I wish you would have been once in my situation between two other games, making a decision about the team for this one game and considering all the information I had from the medical department.
“And then you say afterwards, ‘You obviously don’t want to win it.’ No. I just collect the bones and use the last of the few guys we have.
“Usually we go out in December, historically pretty early, and it’s a time when we play every three minutes. Then you have the wrong draw.
“Size-wise, our squad has been like it is now for the past two or three years. The only problem is they were never all available.
“That’s nothing to do with not wanting to win the competition.”
As injuries have largely dissipated from the current side (barring the untimely cases of Diogo Jota and Bobby Firmino) and those participating in the AFCON tournament have returned, however, it’s a completely different matter altogether for the Reds.
At full strength, we’ve looked more than capable of mounting both a serious title challenge – cutting the deficit between ourselves and Manchester City to three points – and competing effectively for the remaining competitions.
Though squad depth has often been used as a bat to hit us with, the reality remains that, when mostly fit, our squad is more than capable of competing on all fronts.
How successful we are in that endeavour will, of course, depend in large part on how long such a set of circumstances prevail in Merseyside.
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