Liverpool midfield reduced to tears as Jurgen Klopp faces a starkly contrasting problem

It's a situation Jurgen Klopp has admitted isn't ideal.

Liverpool head into their biggest game of the season so far definitely without four regular starters - while another three are major doubts.

Trent Alexander-Arnold and Alisson Becker have been at the fulcrum of the Reds' success under Klopp, with six major trophies secured. Yet they'll play no part in Liverpool's Carabao Cup final against Chelsea at Wembley on Sunday because of Sunday. Neither will Diogo Jota and Curtis Jones.

Meanwhile, the availability of Mo Salah, Darwin Nunez and Dominik Szoboszlai remains precarious. The trio are set for late fitness tests.

With Joel Matip, Thiago Alcantara, Stefan Bajcetic and Ben Doak also ruled out, the Reds face the possibility of having 11 players missing in the capital. Assistant manager Pep Lijnders has admitted that it is 'good in life to just accept what you have and don't look [at] what you don't have' when it comes to the fitness of the Liverpool squad.

Certainly, the decision-making will be made easier for Klopp when it comes to selecting his match-day squad. There will be no need to deliver such heartbreaking news that players have to be omitted. That's what the German had to do two years ago when Liverpool met Chelsea in the Carabao Cup final and won on penalties.

The starkly contrasting injury situation meant Klopp had to leave out players from his squad.

Goalkeeper Adrian would have expected not to have been on the bench. The Spaniard was, and remains, third-choice stopper at Anfield.

Yet Jones and Harvey Elliott were also not included in the starting line-up. Klopp's bevy of midfielders meant that the fledgling pair were left out in the place of Jordan Henderson, James Milner, Fabinho, Thiago Alcantara, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Naby Keita.

Jones had played 17 times that season, having been disrupted by a freak eye injury sustained in training. Elliott, meanwhile, had not long returned from a horrific leg break having started three of the opening four matches of the season.

An injury in the warm-up to Thiago meant he could not be involved - which reduced him to tears on the bench ahead of kick-off. "It’s a very emotional moment we were all surprised, we came in the dressing room, I watched the whole warm-up, didn’t see anything," Klopp said after the game.

"Then we come in and he’s on the bed and the physio tells me he feels something which is not good, obviously in the hamstring. Then we have to make a decision that he cannot start and this moment when you are that close to make a final… for the one player who probably won the most silverware in the whole squad, or as much as the whole squad together showing this kind of emotion, I didn’t like that he didn’t feel that good but that desire to play a final I liked a lot."

As a result, 19th man Elliott was called into the squad. Aged only 18 at the time, the diminutive attacker would come off the bench and score in the shootout.

Elliott is in contention to start this time around at Wembley because of Salah and Nunez's issues. Adrian, meanwhile, will be on the bench for the injured Alisson. Jones will again have to watch on from the stands, however, having been a likelier starter before suffering an ankle injury in last weekend's 4-1 victory over Brentford.

It was only weeks ago when Klopp confessed he had 'a kind of luxury problem' with players competing for different positions and it was no problem. Yet now the situation is starkly contrasting.