Klopp: Coutinho's a 'really good' option for Liverpool despite transfer request

Jurgen Klopp won't hesitate to call on Philippe Coutinho even after the Brazilian informed the Liverpool side of his ambition to join Barcelona this summer.

The 25-year-old handed in a transfer request, a week before the Premier League season kicked off, as speculation mounted over a potential move to Spain where Barcelona was plotting a move to sign him.

However, the transfer deadline passed without Liverpool budging from its stance that it would not consider moving Coutinho, who reportedly attracted a series of lucrative offers such as Barca's final bid worth £90 million.

Regardless of the perceived unrest, Klopp is pleased to have Coutinho in the fold but did not reveal when the gifted Brazilian - who missed the opening matches of the 2017-18 Premier League campaign with a back problem - will make his season debut with Liverpool.

"We still have a really good player in the squad who can play," Klopp told German media outlet SPORT1, as translated by the Press Association.

"Don't believe everything in the press or that there are offers here and there and that the minute after the offer has been entered, it should already be over.

"We are not like George Orwell where everybody knows everything immediately. We have exactly the situation we wanted and no other."

Despite missing Liverpool's first three matches, Coutinho showed no signs of being bothered by the back injury he was purported to have when he came off the bench to double Brazil's lead over Ecuador during Thursday's World Cup qualifier.