It’s swap to their system
But Reds stars handle gaffer Klopp’s changes
Jurgen Klopp promised to keep on making full use of his squad after a much-changed Liverpool team beat Palace.
The Reds made six swaps to the starting XI that beat AC Milan 3-2 in the Champions League in midweek.
And just one of those – Trent Alexander- Arnold’s absence through illness – was enforced.
But after seeing Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah and Naby Keita put Patrick Vieira’s side to the sword, Klopp insisted he will continue rotating his squad.
The boss said: “This SundayWednesday-Saturday rhythm is the most tricky in the Premier League and so 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 before.
“We want to line up the best possible team and that has different factors. This time, it was rhythm or freshness and we decided on freshness.
“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 keeper Alisson was required to tip a looping Wilfried Zaha effort on to the post after he had snuck in behind.
However, the hosts began to improve at the other end around the half-hour mark before Diogo Jota produced a shocking miss following in a saved header.
It was no surprise when the Reds went in front as Mane pounced on a Vicente Guaita save from a Salah headed attempt, thrashing the ball home.
After the break Palace’s Conor Gallagher wasted a chance to get a close-range shot off with a poor touch before ex- Celtic striker 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 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.
“We were not brilliant but we were good and accepted the battle Palace were here for.
“That is why I am really happy about the result, really happy about the performance.”
The fact all three of Liverpool’s goals had come from corners was not lost on Palace boss Vieira.
He said: “I think losing 3- 0 is quite severe with the number of chances we created. But we did defended the set-pieces poorly– you can’t concede three goals at Anf ield if you want to take something from the game.”