Sport | Football

The defender has only recently returned from injury and played the full 90 minutes on Thursday

Liverpool FC via Getty Images

Alex Young @alexwsyoung3 minutes ago

Liverpool return to form with fine win at Fulham	How clever Klopp’s changes kept Liverpool in title fight	How clever Klopp's changes kept Liverpool in title fight

Jurgen Klopp has given an update on Trent Alexander-Arnold's fitness after Liverpool were knocked out of the Europa League by Atalanta.

The Reds gave themselves too much to do after losing the first leg 3-0 at Anfield, and struggled to really test the Italians on Thursday night despite Mohamed Salah's early penalty.

Liverpool were able to welcome back Trent Alexander-Arnold at the weekend and tonight gave him his first start since returning from injury, and Klopp admitted his right-back was struggling after the gmae.

Klopp told TNT Sports: "If Trent Alexander-Arnold had been a bit fitter we could have gone a bit longer, but it is insane that he has even played!

In the end he was running out of gas.”

The cup exit leaves Liverpool and Klopp, who already have the Carabao Cup in the bag this season, to focus on a real fight for the Premier League title.

"We have to focus on the league and that is exactly what we will do from now," he said.

"Tonight we won the game so we are back to winning ways.

That will be a different game but it will be tricky.

"We now have one competition left and we will throw ourselves into that completely."

We need everyone now for the last push in the league

Virgil van Dijk

Captain Virgil van Dijk echoed his manager's comments, adding: "We won tonight and we kept a clean sheet, so there are so many more positives we can take.

We all have a responsibility to be ready for it physically and mentally.

"We need everyone now for the last push in the league.

Hopefully our fans will be there because we need them now more than ever because anything is still possible."

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Jurgen Klopp

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Trent Alexander-Arnold

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