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Jurgen Klopp urges English soccer to find 'a solution' to multi-game League Cup ties

Liverpool have already postponed one of their EFL Cup semi-finals, but Jurgen Klopp wants the competition to go further and ditch two-legged ties in the future.

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp believes it is time that English soccer dumped two-legged League Cup semi-finals.

The League Cup was previously played across two legs in all rounds, but it has been watered down in recent times so only the semi-finals are multi-game ties.

Liverpool are one of the four semi-finalists this year and so face a two-legged clash with Arsenal, starting on Thursday.

However, with Covid prompting matches to be postponed, Klopp believes it is the idea time to think about making a change to the format of the League Cup.
"Covid is around and with the amount of fixtures we have it is really tricky to fit them all in so a second semi-final is actually only good for one thing - it's for the EFL probably from a financial point of view," Klopp said.
"But we should or could find a solution in the future, not for this year obviously because we didn't ask for it, no, just in general.
"I think all top-class people in football, especially the coaches, agree that we have to reduce the amount of games, in the long-term definitely.
"But a lot of people around try to do it the other way and that will not lead in the right direction definitely. It will not be the right outcome.
"So at one point we have to talk about these things but not for this game: we have two semi-finals and we are happy and hopeful that we can play both and that's what we want to do."

The League Cup has been designated for Liverpool's second-choice goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher but Klopp admits the period of Covid-enforced inactivity for Alisson Becker - who has not played since December 28 - means the Brazil international could be drafted in for this game.

"Caoimhin is the goalkeeper for this competition but there is a chance that Ali will play tomorrow," added the manager.
"I think he needs a game now just because of the situation with Covid and everything when he was out.
"We need to make sure that the boys have as much rhythm as they can get."

READ MORE: January 2022 Premier League transfer window ins, outs and latest signings

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