Liverpool’s Lovren set for return against Stoke

“We’re in a position in the league where, if we win a few games, we’ll be right up there”.

Mamadou Sakho and Kolo Toure have formed a partnership in the centre of defence in Lovren’s absence, and while Klopp is delighted to see the Croatian back, he said that “if nothing happened in the next 24 hours with Kolo [Toure] or Mama [Sakho]” he felt “we should do it again“.

With Liverpool defending a 1-0 first-leg advantage and Everton heading to the Etihad holding a 2-1 lead against Manchester City, the pair are on the brink of facing each other in a Wembley final for the first time since the 1989 FA Cup showpiece.

However, it is beyond that game where he believes motivation may be a factor. Stoke have a big physical side defensively and I think they will handle the threat that Liverpool’s forwards provide.

I’d expect this game to revert to type and under 2.5 goals is well worth considering in the region of 8/11 and would have collected in 10 of the 17 games at Anfield this season as well as 10 of Stoke’s 15 on the road (although not in any of their last four). “It’s maybe not the best time, but we spoke about it really intensively, we had good talk together – not the first one, but hopefully the last one!”, said Klopp with a laugh, before adding, “In the end it is clear – it’s not about the formation because we changed that, it’s not always about the quality of the set plays, it is more often about what we are doing in the situations”.

He was serious, though, when discussing Liverpool’s defensive failings, saying: ‘I’m sorry to say it’s not a problem we can ignore.

Stoke went into the first leg on the back of impressive victories over Manchester City, Manchester United and Everton, but their form has tapered off somewhat since the turn of the year and they were beaten 3-0 at Leicester City on Saturday. It’s go, fight for every single ball, every single yard, that’s easy.

“I’m really looking forward to the special atmosphere at Anfield”.

“Let’s take the whole power of LFC and take it to the final”. Following the nine-goal thriller with Norwich, Klopp would happy accept a boring victory on Tuesday [26 January] which would comfortably see his side through.

“It is only a step”.

“Last year I don’t know why but some things went wrong in the semi-finals”. “Then celebrate in your mind, because we have the next game on Saturday”.

“When that presents itself, you really have to grasp it. But if there’s an opportunity, we would like to try it”.

“Reaching a final is cool but it’s not the same as winning”.

“Of course, we know about this problem”.

“There is no grey area for us – we have to win. You have got to fancy your chances in that situation”. I think they keep on going this way and that’s a good idea.

Stoke will be missing skipper Ryan Shawcross, with it being revealed on Monday that the defender is set to be sidelined for up to a month by the back injury he sustained in Saturday’s 3-0 loss at Leicester.

However, their attacking trident should be realigned after Xherdan Shaqiri made a successful return from a hamstring problem at the King Power Stadium while Bojan Krkic and Marko Arnautovic were being rested.