Jurgen Klopp has revealed Liverpool’s youngsters will play in their FA Cup fourth round replay against Shrewsbury.
The Reds let a two-goal lead slip against the League One club on Sunday, meaning the tie will be settled at Anfield on February 4.
It falls in the middle of their two-week winter break, with Klopp insisting all of his senior players will be rested.
It means Liverpool’s youngsters, who featured in last month’s 5-0 Carabao Cup quarter-final loss to Aston Villa while senior stars were competing for the Fifa Club World Cup in Qatar, will be relied on again.
When asked if he would have preferred to avoid an FA Cup fourth round replay, the Liverpool boss told talkSPORT: “One hundred per cent.
“So the situation is the following what we said, we got a letter last April from the Premier League that they asked us to respect the [February] winter break and not organise any international friendlies or competitive games, so we did that.
“We respected the winter break. So we will be in the winter break and in two weeks’ time our youngsters will play against Shrewsbury at Anfield. That’s the solution.”
Curtis Jones and a Donald Love own goal put Liverpool 2-0 up against Shrewsbury.
However, two goals from substitute Jason Cummings within a 10-minute period rescued the tie for the Shrews.
Klopp admitted Liverpool found it hard to play on Shrewsbury’s pitch.
He added: “I think, hopefully, we’re always honest, the 2-2 is the least Shrewsbury deserved today.
“So they had counter-attacking chances in the first-half, one-on-ones with Adrian after we lost the ball. They didn’t score there.
“We scored a really nice goal, they scored our second goal by themselves, but we never really got used to the pitch, to be honest.
“We tried to build up [play], but the ball was constantly rolling. We were hectic, we played into their feet, that’s not us, and that should not be like this. Today, it was like this so we have to accept that.
“They scored the first goal, the stadium was 100 per cent there, they scored the second one and we made a few changes, but in the end it didn’t work out. Congratulations to Shrewsbury.”
