Jurgen Klopp blames witch – Darwin Nunez adds to Liverpool problems 2 weeks ahead of Newcastle | OneFootball

Jurgen Klopp is never slow in coming out with excuses when things go against him and his team.

The Liverpool boss watching on as Darwin Nunez got himself sent off for a head butt on Monday night.

Joachim Andersen had done an excellent job marking the new striker and constantly in his personal space, giving him no room to play and Nunez clearly not happy, often complaining to the referee but quite rightly not getting any joy for his moaning. That frustration then boiling over as the Liverpool forward lost control an assaulted the Palace defender.

Great news for Newcastle United, as Darwin Nunez now misses the game against NUFC at Anfield in two weeks time (31 August), as well as Liverpool’s PL games against Man Utd and Bournemouth.

Despite a goal and a man down, Diaz rescued a point for the scousers but Jurgen Klopp not a happy man.

For the Newcastle United match and the games beforehand, Liverpool already with plenty of injury worries, as Caoimhin Kelleher, Ibrahima Konate, Calvin Ramsay, Curtis Jones, Thiago Alcantara, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Diogo Jota all miss last night’s game.

However, after the draw against Palace, Jurgen Klopp explaining that he’d experienced more setbacks in training, leading up to the match.

The net result being that Roberto Firmino missed the game, whilst Joe Gomez and Jordan Henderson were only fit enough to make the bench. A bench that was mainly made up of young players, including 17 year old Bobby Clark (Lee Clark’s son) who moved from Newcastle last year.

Joel Matip also missed the Palace game with a new groin problem, Jurgen Klopp when asked about the defender’s injury and how serious:

“It will be two weeks, more I think, we will see.”

Matip looking like another player who will be unavailable when Newcastle visit at the end of the month.

Addressing his training ground issues, Jurgen Klopp declaring:

“The week was crazy.

“It was like we had a witch in the building.

“Every day somebody else pulled out for the craziest reasons.”

Well, lets hope the witch keeps paying Liverpool plenty visits between now and that NUFC match.

A bit early to be talking about Liverpool in any kind of decline but certainly they aren’t currently at the dominant best they showed earlier this year, in their final 18 PL matches winning 16 and drawing two. Their defence was outstanding and in a nine game run that included the 1-0 win at St James’ Park in April, the scousers kept clean sheets in eight of them, only Man City able to score against them in that run.

However, since that win against Newcastle, Liverpool have conceded in all of their last six PL matches and indeed could have easily lost their opening two games this season. Fulham leading twice and chances for more goals, Liverpool fortunate to get a 2-2 draw. Whilst last night Palace led against 11 man Liverpool and even when Diaz got an equaliser, Palace were denied a winner by the post.

Interesting to see what the injury / suspension situation is at Liverpool when Newcastle visit and even more interesting to see how Eddie Howe approaches the game. He used relatively attacking tactics at Anfield last season and Newcastle took the lead, before the match officials assisted Liverpool back into the game with a controversial equaliser, before an eventual home win. At St James’ Park though, Eddie Howe used arguably his most negative tactics so far and Newcastle offered next to nothing going forward in that 1-0 loss.