KLOPP’S PICK
JURGEN KLOPP promised to keep making full use of his squad after a much-changed Liverpool team beat Crystal Palace.
The Reds made six changes to the starting XI that beat AC Milan 3-2 in the Champions League in midweek.
Just one of those – Trent Alexanderarnold’s absence through illness – was enforced but Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah and Naby Keita put Patrick Vieira’s Palace side to the sword.
Boss Klopp 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.
“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 year 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.”
Liverpool’s new-look back line didn’t look particularly watertight just two minutes in when Alisson was required to tip a looping Wilfried Zaha effort onto the post after he had snuck in behind.
However, the hosts began to improve at the other end around the half-hour mark as Thiago, Kostas
Tsimikas, James Milner and Fabinho combined before Diogo Jota produced a shocking miss.
And so it was no surprise when they went in front as Mane pounced on a Vicente Guaita save from a Salah headed attempt, thrashing the ball emphatically home.
Palace reasserted themselves at the start of the second period before Conor Gallagher wasted a chance to get a close-range shot off with a poor touch before 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
It was either rhythm or freshness – and we decided for freshness. That’s how it is.
‘We have to rotate the squad to keep it fresh’
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.
Still, 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. 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 and added: “I think when you come to 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.”