Jurgen Klopp was left unimpressed by the suggestion he has dropped Ragnar Klavan from the Liverpool team, when questioned about the centre-back at a press conference on Thursday.
The Estonia international, who was snapped up by Liverpool from Augsburg on a three-year deal in the summer, started the Reds’ first two league fixtures before picking up a knee injury.
As a result, Klavan missed Liverpool’s next three Premier League games, with the 30-year-old returning to action in the 3-0 win over Derby County in the EFL Cup on Tuesday.
And Klopp, who was pleased with Klavan’s performance at the iPro Stadium, insisted that the centre-back’s absence from Liverpool’s recent Premier League matches was solely due to his injury problems and not any performance related issues.
In reply to a question which claimed Klavan has seen his game time reduced, Klopp looked unimpressed and said: “He was injured."
Then asked about what the defender must improve, the German said: "I don’t speak about players in press conferences and tell where they have to improve.
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“That’s all, I’m happy as he played really well against Derby, before that he was injured.
“He had a really good pre-season, all was good, then he was injured, that was the problem.”
Klavan, who opened his side’s scoring against Derby, has thus far made three appearances in all competitions for the Merseyside giants.
He also has 113 caps and three goals for Estonia to his name.
