Klopp makes promise on Liverpool Covid cases and questions Man Utd and Tottenham

Jurgen Klopp says there simply isn't space in a crowded football programme to halt the Premier League in the face of rising Covid infections at clubs.

Yet while the Liverpool manager insists "from a moral point of view" it should be "mandatory" for players to be vaccinated, he accepts there is little legally the authorities can do to introduce tough measures to counter a rampant virus spread.

In a passionate response to the crisis that has seen top flight weekend fixtures decimated he argued:

It is society's moral duty to be jabbed

Power of persuasion should still be used instead of coercion

All clubs need to be more open about cases

Secretive stance of Spurs and Manchester United is "strange" and "misleads"

It's "unbelievable how aggressive" the stance of anti-vaxxers is

Liverpool will lead way in detailing their covid cases

On Friday, Klopp revealed he was still waiting for second tests on Virgil van Dijk, Fabinho and Curtis Jones who missed Thursday night's game because of a positive lateral flow result.

But he insisted he will not be secretive as he believes United and Tottenham have been. He said: "We don't have anything to hide. We know at this moment three players are probably not available.

"And if they are not available we will say it. If they are false-positive we will say that and they are now available.

"I really think the exchange of information is pretty helpful because I think all the misleading and wrong information misleads a lot of people.

" Manchester United had a number of players but I have no idea of the players, I don't know who at Tottenham - we have no information, I have no idea if they have trained today.

"Just say how it is and then carry on from there. Is there a solution? I don't see one at the moment, but transparency helps."

Klopp was asked if the Premier League should be suspended to maintain the integrity of the competition, and his reply was empathic.

"I don't know when all these games will be played. Where is the space for them to be played? Stopping the league means missing five, six games [in] two weeks, probably? So, when do you want to play them?

"(Right now) we don't think we shouldn't play on Sunday, honestly, but if we have six, seven or eight more cases then we cannot play. Who wants not to play for two weeks? It's all not that easy.

"I'm not against stopping the league, I just don't see the 100 per cent benefit of it. Between stopping the league and carrying on there are different levels which we can talk about."

Klopp was also passionate about vaccination, and he called out the anti-vaxxers when he said: "From a moral point of view it should be mandatory for each person I think but that's not from a legal point of view if that makes sense.

"No, it's a question of persuading. I'm 54 years old - and I am really a big believer that you can convince people about the right things to do but I'm not sure in this specific case.

"It is unbelievable how aggressive the anti-vax scene is and how clear they are with all the things, they obviously know better than the rest of us, it is really tricky.

"So no, I don't think it should be mandatory legally, but morally yes."