The Liverpool boss has a few injury concerns ahead of both fixtures but will not entertain fielding a weakened side at Anfield with a view to Sunday's Wembley date
Jurgen Klopp will not take the League Cup final against Manchester City into consideration when he selects his team for Thursday's Europa League encounter with Augsburg.
The Reds were held to a goalless draw at the WWK Arena last week and welcome the Bundesliga side to Anfield for the second leg of their round-of-32 tie just three days before the showdown at Wembley.
With Liverpool needing to win against Markus Weinzierl's men, Klopp will not entertain fielding a weakened side with a view to Sunday's trophy decider. "It's pretty easy because life makes the rules," he told reporters on Wednesday about his planning for both fixtures.
"If you think about the second step before you make the first step, you will always fall down, so there's no other chance. We have to be fully concentrated and give everything for this game.
"If we think, for example, to leave this player out then for sure he will be injured in a training session, so it's not allowed.
"We have to be fully concentrated on this game and then go to the next one. That's how we select the team. The only other thing we have to think about is who is available?"
Klopp has a few concerns ahead of both games. "Dejan [Lovren] was one day in training, now he's ill," he explained. "That's not too good.
"Joe Allen [hamstring] is in a good way but not available, Adam Lallana [calf] is in a good way but not available for tomorrow.
"Of course, Martin Skrtel [hamstring] is not available and [Danny] Ingsy and [Joe] Gomez are not available [both ACL]. That's clear."
The Reds boss did reveal that Daniel Sturridge and Philippe Coutinho could be involved on Thursday and Sunday as they both need to find their rhythm following spells on the sidelines.
"We have to look at who can play on Thursday then we have two other days to think about the Manchester City game," Klopp continued.
"Especially for players who didn't play for a long time – like Phil and Daniel – it's very important to play them for rhythm. You saw they are back but it's not at the consistent highest level.
"That's absolutely normal. They could take a rest and we wait for the highest level or work for it; I prefer working for it and that's what we try to do."
- Goal