LIVERPOOL manager Jurgen Klopp admits injuries to Philippe Coutinho and Dejan Lovren cast a shadow over the 1-0 victory at Stoke and may force him to dip into the January transfer market.
Jordon Ibe, only on the pitch because of Coutinho's hamstring problem, scored the decisive goal in the 37th minute and, after another reshuffle when Lovren departed after also pulling a hamstring, Liverpool put in the resilient performance their manager had called for in the wake of last Saturday's dismal 2-0 defeat at West Ham.
"It is a little bit of a strange feeling because, on the one side, we have won this game and played well, the fight was great," said Klopp after the Capital One Cup semi-final first leg at the Britannia Stadium.
"I don't say it too often, but I was really angry last week, but now I'm proud because we have reacted so well in such a difficult game in all parts. Before the game, if somebody had told us draw, we would taken it, so 1-0, we are happy.
"Of course, with the injuries it is not perfect, two injuries it is not good. A big shadow for us were the injuries, which don't look too good. We will have to wait for this, I don't know how serious, but it is not such good news."
Liverpool now have six players either with, or recovering from, hamstring injuries but with such a packed fixture scheduled, with an FA Cup trip to Exeter on Friday, Klopp does not know what he can do about it.
"Injuries? Yeah that's it, we will look at our training! We don't train, we only recover, that is the situation now? There is no training," he said.
"But it's no problem really. I am responsible for these things and, if you want to make me responsible, then it's okay. We have five hamstrings [Coutinho, Lovren, Martin Skrtel, Jordan Rossiter and Divock Origi, with Daniel Sturridge still rehabilitating from one] and it's my responsibility, but it is like it is and we have to see what we can do."
Mamadou Sakho missed the game with a minor knee problem, leaving Kolo Toure as the only fit centre-back and he suffered with cramp late on at the Britannia Stadium and Klopp is now considering calling for reinforcements.
"In this moment, with no centre-back fit, I would say it is a situation where we have to think about going into the transfer market," he said.
"Two weeks ago, we had three centre-backs, that's a good situation, at the start of the season we had five, now we have none."
Stoke manager Mark Hughes was frustrated his side never got going but thankful they limited the damage: "First-half, sometimes you have to give credit to the opposition," he said.
"They restricted space to good effect, the same as we do when we try to impose our tactics. They had the benefit of the goal and, as a consequence, they could drop deeper and protect it.
"We dominated the second-half, but we didn't get that break. The key was that we didn't concede another and that was a danger. If we conceded another one, that would have been a huge task."
