He is on a
JURGEN KLOPP promised to keep on making full use of his squad after a much-changed Liverpool team earned a 3-0 win over Crystal Palace.
The German made six changes to the starting XI that beat AC Milan 3-2 in midweek as the Reds returned to Premier League action at Anfield yesterday.
Just one of those – Trent Alexander-Arnold’s absence through illness – was enforced but after seeing Sadio Mane, Mo Salah and Naby Keita put Patrick Vieira’s side to the sword, Klopp insisted he will continue rotating as he sees fit.
He said: “This SundayWednesday-Saturday rhythm is the most tricky in the Premier League and we came through that now.
“We had to do the changes, that was clear. The whole last line never played together and I think the midfield played only once together.
“We want to line up the best possible team and that has different factors. Today it was rhythm or freshness and we decided for freshness, that’s how it is.
“We will rotate, we always rotated, but the defence in the last years we couldn’t rotate really because there were always a maximum two fit and the third one was a midfielder.
“In midfield, hopefully we have the numbers to do it. We need that because it is the engine room of the team.”
Liverpool’s new-look backline didn’t look particularly watertight just two minutes in when Alisson was required to tip a looping Wilfried Zaha effort on to the post after the Eagles winger had snuck in behind.
However, the hosts began to improve at the other end around the half-hour mark as Thiago Alcantara, Kostas Tsimikas, James Milner and Fabinho all struck before Diogo Jota produced a shocking miss following a saved header.
And so it was no surprise when they went in front as Mane pounced on a Vicente Guaita save from Salah’s header, firing in to make it a record of scoring agains the Eagles in nine consecutive games.
The half-time break offered a chance for Palace to reset and they reasserted themselves at the start of the second period. Conor Gallagher wasted a chance with a poor touch and Odsonne Edouard did exactly the same.
Unfortunately for the visitors, the punishment for those errors came with just over 10 minutes to go as Salah (right) volleyed in Virgil van Dijk’s flick-on from a corner.
The hard-fought nature of the game until that point was neatly illustrated by Salah removing his shirt to celebrate. But there was still time for Keita to add further gloss to the scoreline with a
sumptuous volley. Klopp was under no illusions that his team had been in a battle and said: “I told the boys after the game that this was one of the most hard-fought
3-0 wins I ever saw, we had to give everything.
“I’m really pleased because in a season, when you are Liverpool, you win football games – most of them. And when you win, usually you are really good or brilliant. Today we were not brilliant but we were good and accepted the battle Crystal Palace were here for.
“That is why I am really happy about the result, really happy about the performance.”
The fact that all three of Liverpool’s goals had come from corner situations was not lost on opposition manager Vieira.
He said: “I think losing 3-0 is quite difficult and severe with the number of chances we created, the situations we created. But I think we did poorly on defending set-pieces – you can’t concede three goals from set-pieces at Anfield if you want to take something from the game.”
The Frenchman also felt aggrieved by some of the decisions that went against his team.
He added: “I think when you come and play at a place like Anfield, a lot of the decisions will go their way.
“That’s the way it is. I don’t know if it’s the way it should be but there were a couple of situations where I believe the decisions didn’t go our way.”