Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp jokingly introduced Philippe Coutinho as a new player to his team and says Brazil star has done nothing 'unforgivable' - but he is left out of Manchester City match

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Jurgen Klopp insists Philippe Coutinho has not done anything unforgivable but explained why the Brazilian will not be involved at Manchester City.

Liverpool’s No 10 is back at Melwood and he sparkled in his first training session with the team since he suffered a back injury on August 1; it was, significantly, the first time he had joined in with the group since handing in a transfer request and making clear his desire to join Barcelona.

The Coutinho issue threatened to compromise Liverpool’s preparations for the new campaign and it was widely reported that the 25-year-old’s relationship with Klopp had broken down, amid bids from Barcelona that reached £114million. 

Barcelona target Philippe Coutinho was back in Liverpool training on Thursday 

Coutinho will not feature against Manchester City and will instead work on his fitness

Klopp said he jokingly introduced Coutinho as a new player to the squad on Thursday

Klopp met Coutinho at Liverpool’s Melwood training base on Thursday morning and he explained their discussion was positive; now the window is shut and Coutinho has remained at Anfield, Liverpool’s manager maintains there will be no problems going forward.

‘I can explain it a little: maybe a few of you have had a split in a good relationship, with the wife or whatever, and it is not good to think about the time you were split,’ said Klopp. ‘It was not the most easy time but that is the window and that is the only time players and clubs can make transfers.

‘It is not the first time and it won't be the last time in history when similar things will happen. I really think we handled it really well. Not all the things in newspapers were 100 per cent right but it is normal a lot of things were coming up in a situation like this.

‘But nothing I am aware of was unforgiveable. It is a normal thing. He came in yesterday, accepted 100 per cent the situation – I didn't even have to say anything about it. We don't know how long he will play for the club so there is absolutely no problem and I am completely fine with this situation.

Klopp said that Coutinho agreed at being left out of the team to rebuild his fitness

Coutinho made two appearances for Brazil during the recent international break

‘He looks like he is the same Philippe. The most important thing is no-one told me anything where I thought 'Oh, that is too much'. There was another pretty big club and they wanted to have a player from us and there was a club decision.’

Coutinho, who played for Brazil twice during the international break, will now work on his fitness and it is possible that he will return to action in a Red shirt at some stage of next week’s opening Champions League group game against Sevilla. There are no doubts about his frame of mind.

‘You can't say 'no' and it stops in one day, that's how it is,’ said Klopp. ‘You have to go through these times and things can be good if you are smart enough to start again. I said yesterday in the dressing room 'Boys, welcome two new players: Alex (deadline-day signing Oxlade-Chamberlain) and Phil.

‘He loves football and he still loves this club so there is no problem. The only thing to do now is to bring him into the shape before he was before the back problems because he played outstanding football in Hong Kong. Now we have to get him back in this situation as quick as possible.

‘We had a very good talk, he was in a very good mood and training was even better. But I had to make the decision. We have seven games in the next three weeks so there will not be the time to train. We had this conversation.’ 

Klopp says that his relationship with Coutinho at Liverpool is perfectly fine

Klopp said Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (centre) needs time to adapt to the squad 

Klopp, who will have Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in his travelling party for the first time, added: Before he went to Brazil he couldn't train for about three weeks so that means we need to try to prepare him for the rest of the season and that is quite difficult with our schedule.

‘So I decided to leave him out of the squad for City so we can use these four or five days for proper training. He played twice, about 15-20 minutes (in each of Brazil's two games) and could have played 15-20 minutes in the City game, maybe longer, but I think it makes sense.

‘He agreed completely. It was not as if he said 'No, I don't need training, I want to play'. It was a good conversation.’