Jurgen Klopp Liverpool EPL
Jurgen Klopp Liverpool

Liverpool were supposed to take on Arsenal in the 1st leg of the Carabao Cup last week but that match had to be postponed due to a COVID outbreak in the Reds squad.

As many as 40 players and staff had reportedly tested positive which is why the Anfield outfit had to close their training ground. But now in a shocking revelation, Jurgen Klopp has confessed that almost all of those results were false positives and only one of them had turned out to be positive.

“The situation is just like this,” Klopp explained (via the Liverpool Echo). “We had what we thought last week was a proper outbreak and it showed up that we had a lot of false-positive results actually.

“But the rules are like they are so all these players who are false positives couldn’t play today. Or we decided not to play them or whatever.

“Could we have played them? I don’t know exactly but we had to make that decision.

“The only real extra positive from the team came from Trent Alexander-Arnold and all the rest were false positives, so it was a really tough week because the boys couldn’t train.

“We had to close the training ground because you have two extra testing grounds, so it’s really difficult.”

Liverpool to be investigated by the EFL?

Going into the Arsenal game Liverpool already had a few players out with COVID and then suddenly these many false positives has raised a lot of eyebrows.

Many clubs and experts have questioned this timely postponement and some of them have nudged the EFL to carry out a proper investigation.

According to a report in The Athletic, the EFL is under pressure to carry out an investigation.

Simon Hughes wrote: “The Athletic understands that the EFL has received complaints from some of its clubs over the postponement, following Jurgen Klopp’s admission that all but one of the club’s positive tests were ‘false positives’.”

UPDATE: EFL make a call amidst growing pressure

According to a report in the Daily Mail, the EFL are more than happy with the evidence that Liverpool have submitted in terms of the postponement which is why they are not going to open any sort of investigation.

The EFL believes the Anfield outfit had followed all the right procedures and protocols so there’s no need to dig this matter further.

Social media has been abuzz with this timely delay, something which has helped players like Fabinho and Alisson return negative COVID results while Bobby Firmino has also fully recovered from his injury.

Yes, this has been a blessing in disguise for the Liverpool boss but we are confident that a club like them will not use such shoddy means to delay an EFL Cup match.

Read: Liverpool team news & injuries vs Arsenal.

Read: Klopp makes honest admission about Liverpool’s postponed game vs Arsenal.

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Read: Are Arsenal set to beat West Ham United in the signing of this €20M midfielder?