Liverpool manager Klopp scoffs at Man City striker-less claims

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Liverpool manager Klopp scoffs at Man City striker-less claims

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has ridiculed the suggestion that Manchester City have struggled without a striker this season.

The Reds have miraculously reduced City's lead at the top of the Premier League thanks to a nine-match winning streak, including Wednesday's win over Arsenal.

It has been suggested that City's lack of goalscoring forward gives Liverpool an advantage, but Klopp has flat out rejected those claims.

"I don't like these discussions at all, to be honest," Klopp said post-match.

"Talking about City as if they would miss a striker, that's a joke. The way they played against Crystal Palace they had like five or six clear-cut chances, nothing to do with not having a striker. You're telling me De Bruyne hit the crossbar because there was no striker?

"You cannot open discussions like you want: on the one side they are the best team in the world and on the next they need a striker. Football is not that easy; you just put a striker there and all of a sudden he finishes the situations off.

"We need our boys in different ways as well, it's not that you can just be a striker who scores goals. If you want to be a striker for Liverpool you have to work your socks off in each game, you have to defend the width, you have to defend the whatever. That is important, that is why we change, not because they didn't score because Diogo scored [tonight] and we still changed. It's about how much can they help us in all the situations and for that you need fresh legs and it's not a massive problem, to be honest, to find the right line-up."