Tribal Football
·16 February 2022
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Yahoo sportsTribal Football
·16 February 2022
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has lavished praise on inter Milan midfielder Nicolo Barella.
The all-action star is not available for the Serie A holders due to suspension.
The Reds and Nerazzuri are playing the first leg of their Champions League round of 16 tie on Wednesday.
Asked about Barella in his press conference, Klopp replied: "That Barella is not able to play is not bad for us. He's a really good player, a really good player and I like him a lot. He has all the things you want from a midfield player: he is aggressive, he is technical, he can run for ages and all these kinds of things. That's a top-class player.
"I'm not 100 per cent sure but probably the replacement will be Arturo Vidal, maybe? That's experience at its best, he played everywhere on the top level and I think in these games Arturo is especially motivated. So I'm not so sure if it's an advantage for us that he will play instead of Barella, but that's not so important.
"I like to say in these situations it's not so important who is playing, it's much more important how we play. It counts for us very much but it counts for other teams as well.
"It's what kind of mood can you create in a game, what kind of mentality can you produce, what kind of football can you show? It depends on the players obviously but it depends even more on the team. So, that will be really interesting. It's one of these games, if I wouldn't be there I would watch it definitely."