Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp braced for difficult selection decisions

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp is ready for a series of selection dilemmas for the remainder of the 2016-17 season after his much-changed team impressed in thumping Championship side Derby County in the EFL Cup third round. Ragnar Klavan, Philippe Coutinho and Divock Origi all netted after the Reds made nine changes from the Premier League win at Chelsea last week.

Klopp handed competitive debuts to goalkeeper Loris Karius and Marko Grujic, a first senior appearance for Ovie Ejaria and a maiden outing of the campaign for Danny Ings, while Emre Can returned from an ankle injury. The encouraging nature of the displays gives Klopp some difficult selection decisions to make in the near future – starting against Hull City on Saturday (24 September).

"Fitness is not a problem," he told Liverpool's official website regarding Can's return. "Emre is a player who has a strong, strong mentality and he can fight. But you saw again it's about rhythm. You cannot go into a shop and buy rhythm. You need to work for it and that's what we are doing. I'm not rushing it.

"Emre is cool enough and experienced enough. We can use him, that's good. He is back, that's very good. But, of course, I don't know who will play at the weekend and what will happen [before] the weekend. The most important [thing] is that the more players I have and the more difficult the choices for me, the better it is for LFC."

The ex-Borussia Dortmund coach was able to report a clean bill of health after the win at the iPro Stadium, another positive for the Liverpool boss who was keen to highlight the displays of several of his first-team squad, many of whom were rewarded for their patience with their first minutes of the season.

"For Divock, the goal was good," he added after Liverpool's third win in a row. "You see [there's] a little bit of a lack of rhythm. [We have seen] better from him. But he is still such a young boy and we will keep on working with him and everything will be good in the future, 100%.

"Alberto Moreno had a brilliant game, very calm – that's how he trained in the last few weeks since he didn't play. He was really cool, concentrated and disciplined in training sessions and that's how he played, really good.

"Marko had a wonderful debut – really good. He is a wonderfully skilled player. If the defensive skills had the same quality as the offensive skills then he is an outstanding player, but we are working on it and he is working on it. Ovie had his debut too – well deserved. Ingsy came in, that's nice. They all deserved these minutes. It was a good evening and a good game for us. I don't think anybody is injured."