Klopp hails long-awaited return of Liverpool defender

Matt Stead

Jurgen Klopp believes Nathaniel Clyne’s return will give Liverpool “a comfortable situation” at right-back.

Clyne has been sidelined for the entirety of the season thus far with a back injury, but returned to training earlier this week.

In his absence, Joe Gomez and Trent Alexander-Arnold battled for one spot at right-back, with both players impressing.

Klopp expects the long-awaited addition of Clyne to that particular battle to boost his squad.

“Clyney obviously missed football! He loves it!” he told Liverpoolfc.com. “It was a long time; it’s crazy how long it was and nobody could have imagined that, but it’s good [to have him back].

“All three can’t play, unfortunately! With the full-backs it’s always a little bit [difficult] and also who can play in another position as well. It’s quite specialist – so you either play or you’re not really involved. Clyney needs a little bit of time, that’s true, but [he looks] very good.

“Trent did what he did and it’s the first time he’s started three games in a row – I don’t think he thought he could do that. At Southampton, I thought maybe he was a little bit on the edge, but we had no other opportunity [to change] so we had to do it again [at Porto] and he did fantastic.

“It’s always like this, you need to be challenge and then you can see it and say, ‘I’m ready for that’. It was good to see.

“Joe is a very important player for us and good that he is back.

“You can see Clyney is just a really good football player and when he’s fully fit, we will have a comfortable situation in that position.”