Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has said that Manchester City would not have won the Premier League 2020-21 title if their three centre-halves had gotten injured during the campaign.
Liverpool, who had won the Premier League last season, were hampered by injuries this season and they can even miss out on qualifying for the Champions League. The Reds need to win their last game to qualify for the Champions League.
"As good as they are, if City have their three centre-halves out, no they don't win the league. Three centre-halves of United, no. For the whole season pretty much too, that is how it is. But the thing about a season is you cannot cut off the negative parts from the positive parts and say that we are nearly there," Goal.com quoted Klopp as saying.
Talking about Liverpool's campaign, Klopp said: "I said when we lost our centre-halves, all of them pretty much, we broke our leg, but we could still win games. It was not always in the most convincing fashion but we were still winning games, scoring."
"Then we had to - and we had to at that time - make midfielders into centre-halves and it broke our spine. Then the whole setup was gone. The young boys were not ready to play at centre-half, the midfielders had to at times play at centre-half," he added.
The top four sides in the Premier League attain an qualification for the Champions League. Liverpool will take on Crystal Palace in their last game of this Premier League season on Sunday.
"We lost some rhythm all of a sudden but not all the time. A football team is like an orchestra where plenty of people work together and if you lose one piece, you might be able to still do it, but if you lose two then it becomes difficult," said Klopp.
"It is how I said before, this year, with the amount of injuries we have had, it was not the year to become champions. No chance. For nobody. We have fought back a bit, accepted the difficulties and made the best of it. And if we win on Sunday, and if we qualify for the Champions League then we made the best of it. That is it," he added.
( With inputs from ANI )
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