Klopp's fury at Milner's new injury, surprise decision to make

In England everyone has already left aside the World Cup in Qatar to focus their attention entirely on the resumption of football activities in the EFL Cup, tournament where institutions such as Manchester City and Liverpool have had to find the best starting line-up to face the round of 16 and achieve the main objective of advancing to the next round, emerging in the Reds a serious problem to have among his men many veteran players, a situation that during the first 45 minutes already affected the team led by Jurgen Klopp.

Although the action looked somewhat even after the first half ended in a one-goal draw, the unexpected injury to Jamie Milner meant that Klopp had to quickly adjust his line-up with the introduction of Nathaniel Phillips, completely tidying up his defensive stalemate by sending on centre-back Joe Gomez as his new full-back, a position the English defender has rarely been seen to occupy during his intermittent involvement over the last year.

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The early and risky decision to deploy Gomez as a full-back could cause problems in the final 45 minutes of the game, for although both sides look evenly matched in terms of player departures, Manchester City's big attack has been well orchestrated by Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland, with the German tactician fearing Guardiola will use his central defender's shortcomings on the wing to create a constant threat.

Klopp's anger and concern is not only focused on what happened on the pitch, as there is clearly serious frustration in the German coach that his team is still suffering badly on the injury front, losing his best man on the pitch in this Carabao Cup clash, with Milner doing more in 45 minutes than Mohamed Salah and Darwin Nunez combined.

Milner was replaced by Phillips

The absence of the veteran England midfielder was evident in the first few minutes of the second half, as two minutes into the second half, Pep Guardiola's club had already taken the lead through Riyad Mahrez, highlighting the defensive shortcomings of the Reds without Konate, Van Dijk and Alexander Arnold.