Five missing for Liverpool as Reds boss Klopp hails 'insane' job done by Hatters chief Edwards

Liverpool head coach Jurgen Klopp has paid tribute to the ‘insane’ job that Hatters chief Rob Edwards has done at Kenilworth Road this season.

The former Welsh international has managed to turn round Town’s campaign which saw Luton win just once of their opening 12 Premier League clashes, although were seconds away from making that two when the Reds visited Bedfordshire, Luis Diaz’s stoppage time equaliser earning the visitors a point. Since then, the Hatters have managed to win four from their next dozen matches to give themselves a huge chance of staying up, as Edwards was up for the Manager of the Month award for January, eventually losing out to the German, who is leaving his job in the summer.

Speaking to the club’s official website, Klopp pinpointed the 2-1 defeat to Manchester United on Sunday, which saw Luton dominate the ball on the evening, as he said: “Tomorrow night is an incredibly important game for us against a really good side. I'm not sure you will ask about Luton, so that's why I start talking about them because the job Rob is doing there is insane. I'm not sure it's really respected enough that a team with the amount of points they had in the beginning of the season making such a footballing development, I'm not sure I saw that before.

"When you saw the Man United game, it was an incredible game of Luton. Yes, they lost it, but it was an incredible game. They increased possession periods during the season in a really crazy way. Good players, obviously top, top coached and that will be a tough one. So, we need Anfield. We need Anfield 100 per cent – it must be a European night in England for that."

Going into the game, Liverpool will be without a number of first-teamers, with Curtis Jones and Diogo Jota both picking up injuries during their 4-1 victory at Brentford on Saturday. The duo now join Trent Alexander-Arnold, Alisson Becker and Dominik Szoboszlai in missing the game against Luton, as Klopp added: “Not available is obviously Ali, that's a muscle injury where we don't know exactly how long it takes but definitely not for foreseeable time coming back. Then we have Diogo with a knee issue, is ruled out. Curtis, with a bone ligament issue, ruled out. With Diogo, it will obviously take rather months.

"Then we have the others where we will deal with it day by day with muscle things. We will see for tomorrow. You see the line-up early enough and then you can see who made it and who didn't make it. That's it pretty much. All the little bit longer-term like Trent and Dom, they are on their way back but not in team training yet, so that means they are not available as well. That's the situation, let me say it like that.

"What I said after the game, as long as we have 11 players, we will go for it, and that's exactly the idea. It takes with the boys day by day and with the games definitely game by game.”