Philippe Coutinho to be left out of Liverpool squad for Manchester City, confirms Jurgen Klopp

The Brazilian has not played for his club side since pre-season

Philippe Coutinho will not feature against Manchester City on Saturday (Getty)

Jurgen Klopp has confirmed that Philippe Coutinho will not be included in his Liverpool squad for Saturday’s trip to Manchester City.

The playmaker, who saw his attempts to force through a move to Barcelona fail last month, returned to Melwood from international duty with Brazil earlier this week.

Coutinho has not appeared for Liverpool since pre-season, having been sidelined with a back problem while speculation over his future was at its height.

Although the 25-year-old played and scored while on duty with Brazil, Klopp believes he needs more time on the training ground before returning for Liverpool.

"We had a very good talk, he was in a very good mood and training was even better," Klopp said. "But I had to make the decision. We have seven games in the next three weeks, so there will not be the time to train.

"Before he went to Brazil he couldn't train for about three weeks so that means we need to try to prepare him for the rest of the season and that is quite difficult with our schedule. So I decided to leave him out of the squad for City so we can use these four or five days for proper training.

"He could have played 15-20 minutes in the City game, maybe longer, but I think it makes sense (to leave him out). He agreed completely. It was not as if he said 'No, I don't need training, I want to play'. It was a good conversation.

Klopp added: "You have to go through these times and things can be good if you are smart enough to start again.

"I said yesterday in the dressing room 'Boys, welcome two new players: Alex (deadline-day signing Oxlade-Chamberlain) and Phil'."