Wolves managed to knock Liverpool out of the FA Cup with a 2-1 win over the Premier League leaders on Monday night and some are blaming Jurgen Klopp’s team selection for the Reds’ defeat.
The German made 9 changes in the starting XI after being dealt out a 2-1 loss by Manchester City on Thursday. Among the starters were 17-year-old Curtis Jones and 18-year-old Rafael Camacho.
Dejan Lovren was one of the only two players to retain their spots in the starting berth but unfortunately had to be substituted off the pitch after just 6 minutes because of a hamstring pull. Klopp could only name 7 players on the bench and was forced to sub in 16-year-old Ki-Jana in the place of the Croatian centre-back.
Lovren’s immediate injury must have been the obvious reason for Klopp to leave out Roberto Firmino, Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and the rest from the starting lineup especially after playing 4 highly competitive Premier League games in less than a fortnight.
After the match, Klopp said, “We played a similar line-up and had three tough games in the last couple of weeks, so it was clear we had to change.”
“The intensity of the last few games gave me the information it was not possible to start with these three up front. Only Dejan played a lot of games in the last three or four weeks, pretty much all the games…He played today and was injured.”
Xherdan Shaqiri came mighty close to equalising but was denied by the fingertips of John Ruddy and the goal post. The Merseyside outfit might have bowed out of the Cup tournament but still have the league and UEFA Champions League to look forward to.
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