Fuming Jurgen Klopp insists there is a plan B - if he needs it

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has angrily rejected suggestions he has no Plan B.

Klopp has been criticised for having no alternative if his high-pressing, high-tempo style of football fails.

Liverpool won just once in 10 outings from the turn of the year to February 4, during which they were eliminated from the League and FA Cups.

But more recently, they have taken 12 points out of a possible 18 to cement third place in the Premier League.

With Champions League football looking likely at Anfield next season, Klopp is set to be handed the biggest transfer kitty in Liverpool’s history this summer, but the German is angered at suggestions that he is unable to switch tactics.

“I’ve never thought about or listened to things like this,” he said. “Actually, I lose a bit of respect if people say things like this. If somebody speaks to me about plan A or plan B, I don’t really understand this, because it’s never been the case.

“We’ve played brilliant football, football at its best. If you go back and look at my teams at [Borussia] Dortmund in 2012 or 2013 it wasn’t all pressing and counter-pressing, we played football and won games.

“This season [we lost games] not because we didn’t have a plan B but because we had difficulties in different games.”

Philippe Coutinho could be restored to the starting lineup today at West Brom after losing half a stone with a sickness bug that kept him from starting in last week’s 2-0 win at Stoke City, but strike partner Roberto Firminho may have to wait.

“Phil is absolutely [ready], but I’d say we still have to manage Roberto carefully,” added Klopp.

Meanwhile, Klopp will lead the tributes to the 96 lives lost at Hillsborough on Saturday on the 28th anniversary of the tragedy.

Klopp and Jordan Henderson, the Liverpool captain, will lay flowers on Saturday afternoon and the entire team will stop and gather in front of the memorial, at the club’s Melwood training ground, just before 3.06pm, the time the FA Cup semifinal against Nottingham Forest was abandoned on April 15 1989.

Klopp said: “We will mark the occasion as a team. I know, at the wish of the families, this is the first year where the service doesn’t take place at Anfield.

“There is a memorial at Melwood with the names of the 96 people who lost their lives. We, as a team, will pause, show our respect and remember them. Their story will always be our story.”