Jurgen Klopp admits he has 'not happy' players in his Liverpool squad

Jurgen Klopp has admitted he has a fine balancing act in keeping his players happy as he looks to maintain Liverpool's unbeaten start to the Premier League season.

He made 11 changes to the side who beat Manchester United 5-0 for the Carabao Cup win over Preston and is expected to make major swaps again as Brighton come to Anfield on Saturday.

The German admitted he has players who are unhappy with the amount of minutes they have received so far, despite Liverpool's excellent start to the campaign.

'I don’t think it’s possible and I don’t think I did it,' Klopp said when asked if he has kept all his squad members happy. 'You should ask all the players in the squad.

'We have to win every game and when you are in football you have to learn early to accept what decision the meager makes. That doesn’t mean they are happy but they accept it.

'I don’t try to keep them happy. Yes I want them all to be happy but I want them to be angry as well when we play an opponent who wants our points.'

One player in question is Joe Gomez, who has returned to fitness after a major knee injury last year but appears to have fallen down the pecking order to fourth-choice centre-back, in part due to the arrival of Ibrahim Konate in the summer.

Gomez captained Liverpool in their 2-0 win over Preston in midweek but Virgil van Dijk is expected to return for Brighton alongside either Konate or Joel Matip.

'It was always clear but we had to react in our situation and bring in another defender,' Klopp said. 'And you see Nate Phillips, a completely different player to a year ago.

'Joey, it’s hard, we have to deal with Joey – intensity, stuff like that. We are not even halfway through the season and we talk about things like this.

'That is a footballer’s life, you have to be on top of your game for the moment you come in and then you come in and have yo convince everybody.

'The five all get on and respect each other, we know Joe’s quality. We have only top class players in that position and that makes it a bit harder when you are not in the line-up up but that is football, you have to keep working really hard for your moment to come.'