Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp revealed that he had to remove his leading scorer, Egyptian winger Mo Salah, from the Merseyside Derby due to an injury scare. Klopp came under much scrutiny for removing his player of the year candidate, and only goalscorer in the 1-1 draw, in the 67′.
The German had to make this switch in order to prevent a hamstring issue from degenerating into a serious injury.
At the same time, Jurgen Klopp also felt forced to defend his player rotation, as his substitutions in the derby have been heavily criticized as well. Klopp was also criticized for his harsh comments towards a reporter and against the officiating, but he has since defended those statements as well.
Jurgen Klopp made six changes to his first team on Sunday, with Philippe Coutinho, Roberto Firmino, Emre Can and Georginio Wijnaldum all dropped to the bench, following the advice of club medical staff.
Klopp confirmed that the two Brazilians “could have played” on Sunday and all four may start tonight versus West Bromwich Albion. Jurgen Klopp maintains that he had to rest these key players due to the extreme workload of the recent schedule, which has seen the Reds play seven times in 21 days.
He also indicated that Salah could start in the league fixture later today versus the Baggies at Anfield.
“I have 500,000 pieces of information and I have to make a decision; I cannot write a book before each game. I do not want to say (it was a risk to play Coutinho and Firmino) as that would sound like an excuse and I don’t need an excuse,” Klopp said.
“I find it funny that we talk after this game about that but we did not speak about it after the 5-1 or 3-0, why they did not play (the wins at Brighton and Stoke when Salah, Coutinho and Sadio Mane did not all start). This is one game we should have won they did not play.
“We play it 10 times and we win. We had a bit of information but, come on, it would sound like an excuse to me.”
“I took Mo Salah off because he felt the hamstring a little bit. Then everyone said, ‘How can you take him off?’ I do not go out and say: ‘Because he is close to being injured.’ He is not injured at the moment, thank God. Hopefully we took him off early enough. We have to do it.”
“Seven games in 21 days before Everton and now six games in 18 days. It is exactly the same.”
“We need the best quality we can have before each game. We cannot ignore the number of games.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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