Young Liverpool thwarted by West Ham in second Wembley quest

However, with the Europa League to restart and a Capital One Cup final appearance, secured on Tuesday, meaning they have a Merseyside derby to reschedule, any additional games are unwelcome.

Jurgen Klopp has insisted that Liverpool will not be rushed into buying players in the final days of the January transfer window just because of our busy schedule. It prompted the Liverpool manager to politely note the difference between the multi-World Cup and European Championship winning German game and the Premier League.

As promised by Klopp there were major changes to his Liverpool side that lost to Stoke City on Tuesday but prevailed on penalties.

Ahead of the FA Cup clash with West Ham United, Jurgen Klopp once again revealed he was unsure when the club would see the forward in red again. It’s an intensive time, hopefully we have players to come back from injury and we will have enough. Maybe we should buy a few players, but they will come back.

West Ham will be hoping to record their third win over Liverpool this season when they travel to Anfield for Saturday’s FA Cup fourth-round tie.

“I don’t know where they will find a space for the replay”, Klopp added.

“We want it, we are hungry, we have a good team, we are in good form, we have been quite consistent for the whole season and of course we are very optimistic”.

Cameron Brannagan, Brad Smith, Kevin Stewart and João Carlos Teixeira, aged 19, 21, 22 and 23 respectively, were instrumental in giving Liverpool the edge over Slaven Bilic’s disrupted and subdued team.

The game’s first real chance fell to Cameron Brannagan when a loose ball rolled into his path following Jordon Ibe’s driving run, but the England Under-20s worldwide struck over the crossbar from 25 yards. The club have not given up on another Teixeira, Alex, despite hard talks with Shakhtar Donetsk, but their manager’s faith in young talent already at his disposal is being repaid. Klopp I think will be the unhappier of the two. Steven Caulker played for the first time in his position in defence and did well but I can not fault anyone, they tried and gave all.

“I’ve been scoring goals, I feel good, I feel fit and, although some of the results have been disappointing, I’m enjoying my game at the minute”, Rooney said, “and long may it continue”.

I expected Liverpool to bounce back and put some sort of pressure on the West Ham goal but Christan Benteke was his usual immobile self and Liverpool lacked the creativity of Roberto Firmino. This could be a really big step for Caulker, who has the chance to earn his place in the team despite being more of an emergency loan signing.