Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp said that it would be difficult for Philippe Coutinho to settle back in at Anfield had he wanted to leave for a club other than Barcelona… like Everton.
Coutinho will now have to wait to return to Livepool’s starting XI after failing to force through a move to Barcelona last month – but Reds boss Jurgen Klopp has insisted that all is well between them.
Klopp has welcomed back Coutinho into the fold and has told his players to get behind the Brazilian.
Sources reveal that Klopp also urged Liverpool fans to get behind Coutinho, who had angered them by revealing that he would not play another game for the Reds if he was not allowed to leave for Barca.
But Klopp has now insisted that he is in no hurry to push Coutinho into action and believes that the Brazilian needs time to fully recover from a recent back problem.
The wantaway star is yet to play for Liverpool this season after handing in a transfer request and complaining of a back-injury, but surprisingly he was declared fit to play in the World Cup qualifiers for Brazil.
The Liverpool star made two substitute appearances for Brazil in the World Cup qualifiers, finding the net as they outplayed Ecuador 2-0 last week.
He returned to training at at Liverpool’s Melwood base on Thursday, after flying back to Merseyside following Tuesday’s 1-1 draw in Colombia.
Bacelona saw three bids for Coutinho rejected this summer, with the player handing in a transfer request to force through his move to the Nou Camp.
The Brazilian did not play a single game for Liverpool since submitting a transfer request but Klopp insisted that the player’s back injury is genuine.
Liverpool boss Klopp held talks with Coutinho for the first time after the transfer window closed that saw the Brazilian failing to secure his dream move to Barcelona.
The former Dortmund boss is happy that everything has cooled down between them.
Klopp is confident there will be no problem reintegrating Coutinho as he did not seek a move to Liverpool’s Merseyside rivals.
“Do I think that somebody could have [a complaint]? Most of them are friends for many years,” he said. “100 per cent if a club like Barcelona is around then nobody says: ‘Are you crazy, what do you want to go there for?’
“Everyone has this little bit of understanding and thinks ‘OK it’s Barcelona’ and it is not that he wants to go to Everton. Then it would have been different I would say. Another wonderful club but a different situation.”
“[The rest of the squad] know him. He wasn’t in for three, now four weeks with the international break, that is nothing. They are really good friends. They understand it a bit. They probably wished it could have been different, but now it is not anything.”