Jurgen Klopp reacts after the 3-1 defeat for Liverpool away at Brentford in the Premier League.
Jurgen Klopp has explained his decision to replace Virgil van Dijk at half-time in Liverpool’s dreadful Premier League defeat at Brentford.
Van Dijk was one of three changes made during the interval as the Reds sought to respond after slumping 2-0 behind at the Gtech Community Stadium on Monday evening.
While Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain pulled a goal back shortly into the second half, Liverpool eventually lost 3-1 in a major blow to their hopes of Champions League qualification.
And Klopp revealed Van Dijk, who was replaced by Joel Matip, had complained of discomfort but allayed fears of a significant injury.
“Virgil felt a little bit the muscle and said it is fine, and he is a very good judge of these kind of things,”
“But I didn’t want to take any risks.
“The physios looked quite happy when I said we don’t take risks. It’s not an injury, he just felt the intensity.”
Said the Reds boss.
Naby Keita and Andy Robertson were also introduced at half-time for Harvey Elliott and Kostas Tsimikas respectively, and Klopp was pleased with the contribution of the duo.
“The other two changes were tactical,”
“We obviously had the opportunities to bring on Naby, who I think had a really good game, and Robbo.
“Robbo with the very first action at the start of the second half was exactly what we needed. We needed that speed in behind. That was the reason for those two changes.”
He said.
Despite Liverpool being much improved at the start of the second half, Klopp insisted there was no grand message to his players during the interval.
“We started well in the first half as well, didn’t we?”
“Nothing really special (was said). We had to just remind the boys of the things we needed to do to create Brentford problems.
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