Sports

Neymar smart to protect himself from injury –Klopp

Published

6 years ago

September 17, 2018

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp defended Neymar ’ s play – acting at the World Cup and believes it will be impossible to completely snuff out the Brazilian ’ s threat when Paris Saint-Germain visit Anfield in the Champions League on Tuesday .
Klopp insisted Neymar wasn ’ t fully fit in Russia after breaking a bone in his foot in February that forced him to miss the rest of the club season with the French giants before the World Cup.

However , the world ’ s most expensive player earned few plaudits for his performances and became a figure of fun for his constant feigning of injury as Brazil crashed out at the quarter – finals to Belgium.

“ When I saw a few games at the World Cup and I know people are talking about that and it looked like he made a bit more of situations . But it ’ s a normal reaction because players are going for him , that ’ s the truth , and he wants to protect himself . I understand that , ” said Klopp on Monday .

“ I ’ m not sure it ’ s possible to avoid his quality 100 percent . He ’ s a fantastic footballer , outstanding . ”

“ He was not fit at the World Cup and he tried to take the responsibility for his country . Belgium played an outstanding game against Brazil , but if Neymar is fit, Brazil wins it . That ’ s how it is .

“ He was injured and so he had to save himself a bit. He ’ s not a person who wants to act because if you are like that you cannot play football .

“ He got rested at the weekend so he will be 100 percent fresh , he ’ s not injured any more . We will see the full package Neymar . ”

– Tuchel ‘ one of the best ’ –

Despite splashing over 400 million euros on Neymar and Kylian Mbappe , PSG failed to progress beyond the last 16 in their quest to win a first ever Champions League.

But Klopp , who led Liverpool to the final in May , believes marrying a richly talented squad with new coach Thomas Tuchel makes the French giants an even bigger threat to win the competition this season .

“ The players they have , the manager they have , they all brought it together to go as far as possible in the Champions League, ” he added .

“ He is an outstanding coach . I really thought it was a smart decision of PSG to sign Tuchel, ” said Klopp .

“ For this kind of team with unbelievable individual quality , you still need a manager who can teach or educate them in playing together and they brought in one of the best I know . That makes them quite a big challenge for us . ”

Liverpool have build on the momentum of reaching last season ’ s final and a summer of shrewd investment in the transfer market by winning all five of their opening Premier League games .

However , as they prepare to face one of the world ’ s most daunting attacking tridents in Neymar, Mbappe and Edison Cavani , Klopp could be without one of his prolific front three .

Roberto Firmino suffered an abrasion after being poked in his left eye by Tottenham ’ s Jan Vertonghen on Saturday and is a doubt to partner Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane .

“ Would he play today ? No chance , but we all hope tomorrow ( he ’ ll be ok ) , ” said Klopp .

“ It ’ s a big relief for us . It’ s painful, nobody needs that , but he will be fine . We only don’ t know exactly when . Another 30 hours until the game so we will see how it develops . ”

( AFP )