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Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has ridiculed suggestions the Premier League title could become null and void should the coronavirus outbreak affect the end of the season in England.
The Telegraph had reported Liverpool, who are 22 points clear at the top of the table, may not be crowned champions if the campaign is curtailed by the coronavirus.
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However, speaking ahead of the FA Cup fifth-round clash with Chelsea on Tuesday, Klopp said: “I don’t think our fans are paranoid. I can’t believe that Liverpool fans are bothered about it and I actually speak to Liverpool fans.
“If you want to ask me how much sense it would make, who would play in the Champions League next season, it would be really interesting.
“It’s a nice story, but when I saw it for the first time, I thought: ‘Wow! Really, somebody thinks something like that?’ Liverpool fans are not silly enough to believe these things.”
Liverpool’s youngest-ever starting XI beat Shrewsbury 1-0 in a fourth-round replay and while Klopp said he is likely to use some of the same players, he will also look to many of his first choice against Chelsea.
“It’s not about loyalty,” he said. “These boys are our boys, and they did what they did.
“If we win the FA Cup in the end, they would be involved in our celebrations. If they will play tomorrow night, I don’t know, we will see that, for sure not all of them.
“From the Shrewsbury team for sure there will be boys in the squad, and who will start then, we will see.
“It’s a different situation than it was in the last round. If you see the team who played at Shrewsbury, that was actually an FA Cup team for us in that moment, which we thought would make sense.
“We couldn’t get the result we wanted, that’s why we had to play a second time, but it will not be exactly the team who played the second time against Shrewsbury.”