Klopp is adamant Alexander-Arnold will gain Gareth Southgate’s trust
With Reece James and Kyle Walker sidelined due to injuries, Gareth Southgate will heavily rely on under-fire Alexander-Arnold in the right-back position for the upcoming World Cup. However, Klopp is adamant his right-back will be among his side’s key players.
Reece James was substituted during Chelsea's 2-0 Champions League victory against Milan in October as the Blues announced later that the right-back will undertake a two-month "rehabilitation course."
Although the right-back was optimistic about fast injury recovery, the 22-year-old conceded he will not return to fitness in time on Wednesday. With Kyle Walker also in doubt to be fit for Qatar World Cup, Liverpool's
Trent Alexander-Arnold
is likely to be Gareth Southgate's driving force at right-back.
Speaking ahead of
Liverpool's Saturday Premier League clash with
Southampton
, Jurgen Klopp told his press conference:
"It's nice. It's a big tournament, everybody dreams of these kind of things and he was very pleased about the news and I am very happy for him.
"I know Trent now for long enough, he knows that apart from playing football he has no influence [on selection decisions], it's a lot of talk around him.”
On
Gary Neville
’s positive comments, Klopp added: "
I heard now that Gary Neville said something about in the knockout games [Alexander-Arnold] cannot play or whatever, I'm not sure he said it really or somebody wrote it down and changed the words a little bit.
"He is now 24, he won quite a few finals, that's a very important game where you have to defend, he played finals against Chelsea last year for example, they were incredibly intense and world-class players were in moments better than players they face at the World Cup, definitely.
"[Champions League] finals against Tottenham and Real Madrid, he was always there and he always defended well. I don't know exactly why we have this discussion but it's fine.
"I think he would have been disappointed if he had not been there... I saw his face and realized he was really happy about it."
On Southampton clash after Ralph Hasenhuttl was replaced by
Nathan Jones
as their manager this week, the Liverpool coach added:
"I actually thought Ralph Hasenhuttl did an exceptional job there," Klopp said. "Everything has its time, but if Southampton showed anything then it was for sure attitude. They were a highly-motivated team, always really going for it.
"Yes, with a new manager there might be an extra few per cent if that's possible but for us that's not our problem because we always expect a really motivated opponent."
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