Brazilian lost 3kg in 3 days
Jurgen Klopp revealed that his star man Philippe Coutinho lost 3kg in 3 days with illness in the run-up to Liverpool’s 2-1 win away at Stoke City on Saturday.
Klopp was criticised on Wednesday after the Reds’ 2-2 draw at home to Bournemouth, having withdrawn Coutinho with half an hour to go and replaced him with defender Joel Matip.
The sub induced a change of system that many fans believe caused Klopp’s team to concede late on against the Cherries and drop 2 vital points in the race to finish in the top 4.
However, Klopp revealed after the game that Coutinho feeling ill was the catalyst for the substitution.
There was further questioning of the manager before kickoff in the Stoke game, as both Coutinho and his international teammate, Roberto Firmino, both started on the bench.
After finding themselves 1-0 down at half time, both players were brought on for the second half and saved the day, both grabbing a goal each with 2 minutes of each other to turn it around.
And Klopp has revealed just how ill Coutinho was in the preceding days before the match at the Bet365 Stadium,
Asked if the initial plan was to introduce Coutinho and Firmino later in the game than half-time, Klopp told said: “That was the plan really, but of course you never know, Coutinho lost three kilograms in three days, maybe a few people would love to have this but it’s not good for a professional football player!
“Firmino after the last game had a bit of a groin problem and was a bit tired, maybe he could have started but we had to leave him out of training for three days, so it was his first session today!
“It was difficult to decide, but finally everything went well so I’m happy.”
“That second half we did really well, we were cool, played football finally, and created chances, but of course we needed Simon. That’s the goalkeeper’s job, I’m really happy for him, I have no idea how he saved the second chance, and the first one from Adam was a really good one.”
By Ben Kelly – @benkelly_10
