Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has told the Liverpool Echo that he had decided before Sunday’s game with Everton to make an early substitution.
The Reds made the short trip to Goodison Park on Sunday, taking on Everton in the third Merseyside derby of the season.
Liverpool were understandably rusty after three months without a game, and failed to hit top form in a fairly dour 0-0 draw.
If anything, Liverpool were maybe fortunate not to lose it at the end as Everton created four good chances, but couldn’t get the ball in the back of the net.
Without Mohamed Salah, Liverpool didn’t quite have their usual fluency in attack. The Egyptian was on the bench, but wasn’t brought on by Klopp.
January signing Minamino took his place, and showed some promising signs in the first half. Before lockdown, Minamino had struggled to hit top form for the Reds.
The bedding-in period for new signings at Liverpool can take a while, and the former Red Bull Salzburg attacker is now experiencing that.
Klopp substituted Minamino at half time in favour of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, drawing criticism from some fans who felt that he was one of Liverpool’s brighter sparks.
However, Klopp has now noted that he had the idea to substitute somebody early in order to make use of the five substitutes, and that just happened to Minamino. Klopp claims that the substitution was nothing to do with Minamino’s performance, as he came into the game after a difficult start.
“Before the game I had the idea that I wanted to change really early and use the opportunities that five changes could give us,” said Klopp. “We thought why wait for tired legs when you can bring on five players. That didn’t work out 100%. Taki was in the game. At the beginning it was a bit difficult but then he was in the game.”
“The change at half-time was a pure idea from me. It had nothing to do with Taki’s performance in the first half,” he added.
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