Liverpool midfielder James Milner has told the club’s official website that he felt the number of changes to the line-up made an impact against Atalanta.
The Reds were in Champions League action on Wednesday night, hosting Atalanta just weeks after smashing them 5-0 in Italy.
Having beaten Leicester City on Sunday, Jurgen Klopp decided to make a host of changes for the visit of Atalanta – and it didn’t really work.
Neco Williams, Rhys Williams, Kostas Tsimikas and Divock Origi were among the fringe players to come in, but Liverpool fell to a 2-0 defeat.
Josip Ilicic put Atalanta in front, and Robin Gosens smashed home a second to give Atalanta all three points on Merseyside.
That does somewhat complicate Liverpool’s hopes of getting through the group stage despite three wins in a row before last night, and Klopp will hope for a swift response against Brighton and Hove Albion this weekend.
After the game, veteran Milner suggested that so many changes to the starting lineup affected Liverpool’s display ‘a bit’, believing that the players on the pitch didn’t have much chemistry.
Milner criticised Liverpool’s lack of creativity and lack of sharpness, believing that the Reds need to keep going through a packed schedule.
“A bit. I think there were a lot of players who haven’t played together and the schedule is busy, we keep saying it,” said Milner. “Sometimes you just have to try to get a win without being at your best and maybe not having the level that we would like to have, and we couldn’t do that tonight.”
“We didn’t create enough, didn’t keep the ball enough, we just didn’t have that sharpness really so it’s disappointing. But we’re still top of the group so we have to recover and go again at the weekend, another big game,” he added.
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