KLOPP RISKING HUMILIATION

right decision for Liverpool and for my team. I have to make changes.

‘The team that plays will want to win 100 per cent but it won’t be a team that has played together often. If someone wants to write a headline (about lacking respect), it is not the truth. We respect the FA Cup. That is one reason for the team we will play.

‘It is a chance for Exeter and they have to take it. That’s football. Our squad is big with all the young players and we have to use this quality now.’

Tonight’s match is Liverpool’s 10th in 37 days and, under those physical demands, Klopp feels he cannot gamble on fielding his fit senior players, given they have another four games before the end of this month.

Klopp has recalled youngsters Sheyi Ojo, Ryan Kent and Kevin Stewart from loans at Wolves, Coventry and Swindon respectively, and Tiago Ilori had his loan with Aston Villa cancelled yesterday. All four will be involved at St James Park, while Jose Enrique will play his first game since January last year.

Since the former Borussia Dortmund boss took over at Liverpool in October, his squad have suffered 28 separate

BENTEKE FACES FIGHT TO WIN OVER KLOPP

CHRISTIAN BENTEKE is failing to win over Jurgen Klopp in his bid to prove he can lead the line for Liverpool. The Anfield boss is not convinced the Belgium forward is the real deal and already has his team identifying summer targets, with Klopp seeking a striker with a more imposing nature. Benteke, who has seven goals in 14 starts for the club, was dropped for the Capital One Cup semi-final win at Stoke but is set to start at Exeter tonight. With Daniel Sturridge and Divock Origi soon to return, though, the 25-year-old could find game time hard to come by. injuries. The latest casualties are forward Philippe Coutinho and defender Dejan Lovren, who damaged hamstrings at Stoke on Tuesday.

Coutinho is expected to be sidelined for up to a month, while Lovren could be back for the trip to Norwich on January 23. Kolo Toure and Jordon Ibe will stay on Merseyside this weekend to recover from their exertions at Stoke.

Outspoken former Wales coach Raymond Verheijen has pointed the finger at Klopp’s management for the number of hamstring issues his players suffer.

And Klopp responded yesterday: ‘I don’t have a good memory for bad things. It is not too complicated to find that we had a bad situation last season in Dortmund.

‘I always feel a responsibility for this but you can only change what you can change. You accept the situation. The problem is if you start with too many injuries, you cannot react because of the number of games. It can happen.

‘There is only one team in the Premier League who have had the same schedule as us — Tottenham. But they didn’t have the last game because they are out of the Capital One Cup.

‘If we had not played on Tuesday then Phil and Dejan are still in the race and we have something like a normal situation. If we could have changed (players in games) more often, no one would have had this intensity, but you cannot have 40 or 50 players.’

Ilori, the Portugal Under 21 defender, has returned but Klopp will press ahead with plans to sign experienced cover on loan. Dortmund’s Neven Subotic and Andrea Ranocchia of Inter Milan are possible targets.

Liverpool have also loaned out 15 players — including £20million winger Lazar Markovic to Fenerbahce — and there will be no repeat of that policy.

Klopp said: ‘The best skill and the biggest talents should be in your club so they can play together and develop as a team. If they make big steps then pick them, so you need them around you.

‘Now we are bringing them back and it is a big chance for the boys, but there is no pressure because they are so young.

‘If they do well they can make the next step quickly but if not they have time. We want to work with them and we will see what happens.’