Aston Villa 5 Liverpool 0: Reds kids taught a lesson as they’re thrashed in Carabao Cup quarter-final defeat
JURGEN KLOPP’S kids got hammered as Aston Villa breezed into the Carabao Cup semi-finals.
Liverpool boss Klopp and his senior stars watched this thrashing on TV from the Club World Cup in Qatar.
The club’s youngest-ever side - with an average age of just 19 years and 182 days - were put to the sword.
Reds boss Klopp once again slammed the timing of the global tournement and urged football chiefs to stage talks over its future.
Meanwhile, Jonathan Kodjia scored twice at Villa Park after Conor Hourihane opened the scoring and an own goal by 18-year-old Morgan Boyes, one of five debutants, handed the hosts a 4-0 half-time lead.
Klopp’s Liverpool face Mexican side Monterrey in the semi-finals here in Doha ahead of either a third place play-off or final on Saturday.
An expanded 24-team tournament is due to be staged in China in 2021.
Klopp said: “We are here now and completely focussed. If, however, you asked me if there should be a Club World Cup in the middle of our season, I would say no.
“We are here so, for us, it is the most important competition in the world. But can it be bigger? I don’t know.
“FIFA plans a team World Cup in the summer, but it is the summer when the African competition is being held and other tournaments as well.
“Look, we have a lot of fans in this part of the world and they watch us when it is the middle of the night, so it is nice we come closer, but from the organisation points of view, they have to get around the table and talk.
“Otherwise, FIFA say ‘we’ll have a tournament’, and UEFA say ‘so will we’, and then South America too. And they all think their tournament is the most important.
“So it’s not so easy. In the summer, yes, it is nice. But you cannot then have all the other tournaments.
You cannot just add on tournaments. They won’t like this but it is my opinion and I think all day about football.”
Klopp was less forthcoming when asked about Qatar’s terrible human rights issues where homosexuallity is illegal with punishments of up to seven years.
The Reds boss added: “I have an opinion about football, I have an opinion about that as well, but this is a real serious thing to talk about and I think and the answers should come from people who know more about it.
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“I have to be influential in football but not in politics. People in politics have to be influential. Anything I say wouldn't help, it would just create another headline, positive or negative. Who cares? That’s not how it should work.
“I like that you ask the question but I think I am the wrong person to answer. Anyone has to be concerned to come here if they can’t do the normal stuff.
You have to respect the rules of different countries, I have to respect the rules of England when I am there, now I live there. From my point of view, it is only cultural but that's how it is.”