Coach Jurgen Klopp praised Bobby Clark’s performance in Liverpool’s defeat of Sparta Praha, but revealed that the young player was injured.After beating the Czech club 5-1 away from home in the first leg, Liverpool were relentless in the second leg at Anfield, leading 4-0 within 15 minutes. 19-year-old midfielder Clark, son of former Newcastle midfielder Lee, made his European debut for the club.

Bobby Clark also scored the first goal for the Port City team, he then left the field in the 73rd minute, to be replaced by another young player, Mateusz Musiałowski. The match ended with a score of 6-1, with this result Liverpool won a ticket to the quarterfinals with a total score of 11-2 after two matches.

Speaking at the post-match press conference, Klopp said he planned to bring Musiałowski on to replace Mohamed Salah, who started his first match for the club since January. However, that plan changed when the former Dortmund coach noticed that Clark was struggling and decided to replace him. He said:

“My plan is to withdraw Salah to bring in Mateusz. But then Bobby Clark had problems and we had to change plans. Clark had to leave the field, and Salah still had enough experience to continue playing. As for Clark, it was great to see him develop, it was a top performance.

Clark is the only one we’re a little worried about. I hope it’s nothing. He said he felt like something was wrong, so we had to replace it. Other than that, everyone else will be fine.”

Clark has featured in two of Liverpool’s last three Premier League matches, starting in the 1-0 win over Nottingham Forest before returning to the bench last weekend against Man City.

Liverpool still does not have many players participating in the FA Cup clash with MU at the weekend, when Alisson Becker, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Curtis Jones, Ryan Gravenberch, Diogo Jota, Joel Matip and Thiago Alcantara are all recovering from injury.