Jurgen Klopp admitted it was something of a personal blow to see Bobby Firmino left out of Brazil’s World Cup squad.
The Brazilian joins fellow surprising misses from international duty, Thiago Alcantara and Joe Gomez, in remaining with Liverpool for their upcoming training camp in Dubai.
“A blow, definitely. It was one for me, to be honest,” the German told reporters, as covered by The Telegraph. “It shows just how incredibly good and talented this Brazil squad is if you can leave a player like Bobby Firmino out. Madness. He is fine but very disappointed.”
The Merseysiders are set to take on Southampton at Anfield in their final game of the first-half of the campaign before players jet off to Doha.
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Given the form Firmino’s started the season with, registering 12 goal contributions in 20 games, we’re more than a little surprised ourselves that Tite has opted to leave our No.9 out of his plans.
On a completely selfish note, of course, it’s superb news for ourselves and Klopp’s plans of ensuring that most of his squad is fit and ready once domestic football resumes.
Hopefully our time in Dubai can act as the pre-season period we evidently desperately needed before kicking off the 2022/23 campaign.
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