Dejan Lovren’s injury during Liverpool's FA Cup defeat to Wolves plunges Jurgen Klopp into a centre-back conundrum that will test them in the Premier League title race, writes Adam Bate from Molineux.
Even Virgil van Dijk needs a partner. Dejan Lovren's hamstring injury that forced him off the field inside five minutes of Liverpool's FA Cup third round defeat to Wolves at Molineux means that Jurgen Klopp could now be without three centre-backs.
With Joe Gomez and Joel Matip already out, it represents a huge problem in a title race with little room for error.Asked at the end of the press conference after the game whether Lovren's hamstring injury now presented him with a headache, Klopp was brusque in his reply.
"Yes," he said. "What do you think?" The follow-up question concerned the likely length of the layoff. "I want to know, you can believe me," he added. "But I don't know."
Any tetchiness in his tone was understandable and perhaps his mood was exacerbated not just by the result but by the fact that he had felt forced into selecting Lovren for the game against his better judgment.
The Croatian was the only player that Klopp has picked to start in each of the last six matches. He had been earmarked for a rest.
