Jurgen Klopp admitted he “did not enjoy” Liverpool’s 3-1 loss to Lyon earlier today and confirmed that Darwin Nunez will return to Liverpool training tomorrow for the first time since Uruguay were knocked out of the World Cup.
The Reds could have done it with the firepower of their £64m against the Ligue 1 side as the FA Cup holders, leading 1-0 in 40 seconds, blew their lead in what was a disappointing afternoon.
“Mr. Blanc asked me to be quick with the press conference,” Klopp said (quoted by Metro). “The weather and the facilities are excellent here, the only thing I didn’t enjoy was the result.
“Darwin Núñez will join us tomorrow, the rest of us will see you in England again.”
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Performance is always more important than result when playing a friendly and there were certainly some positives to take away from the first half.
However, one of the negatives was the fact that Harvey Elliott seemed to take a hit during the early stages and was pulled just before the half hour mark.
“Harvey took a hit before we scored,” he added. “Harvey took a hit. But I think we were lucky.
“He looks good now but he feels it, that’s normal, there was contact. But I hope we were lucky at that time.”
Klopp also referred to the ‘punch in the face’ news that Luis Diaz has suffered a setback in his recovery from a knee injury.
The Colombian has not featured since walking off the pitch during the loss to Arsenal in October and is now expected to be sidelined until March.
The former Porto player has been fantastic since joining the club in January and his absence has been felt in recent weeks.
“Yeah, I wasn’t in the best possible place,” Klopp said. “It is clear that it is a great disappointment for all of us, for him too.
“It was a non-situation in training, honestly, nothing, I felt something. [He] I didn’t feel much the next day, but we wanted to be very cautious and said, ‘Okay, come on, let’s take a look.’
“Yeah, then the news came and it was a real punch in the face. But that’s all now.
Naby Keita featured during the second half of today’s clash in what was his first performance since Manchester City’s Community Shield defeat in July.
Meanwhile, Diogo Jota is still out and will not return to action until February.
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