Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has suggested to the club’s official website that he was worried that Xherdan Shaqiri might pick up an injury against West Ham United.
Shaqiri started for Liverpool in their Premier League game against West Ham away from home at the London Stadium on Sunday evening.
The 29-year-old winger played well and provided a wonderful assist for one of Mohamed Salah’s goals.
The Switzerland international was taken off in the 69th minute, and Liverpool manager Klopp has suggested that he was worried that if he played for the entire 90 minutes, then he might have picked up an injury.
Klopp told Liverpool’s official website: “And Shaq’s last ball was an incredible ball. With Shaq, he played really good and he maybe could have played 90 minutes but that’s the problem in the moment, that you just don’t know.
“He didn’t play plenty of games and had before that slight injury problems. My mood is constantly concerned about injuries – constantly concerned about injuries – and we try to save everybody, like it was with Millie as well.”
Sensible decision
Liverpool have had injury problems this season, with Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez long-term concerns, and Joel Matip and Fabinho also missing.
It made sense for Klopp to take off Shaqiri, as it looked at that stage that the defending champions were going to win the match.
The winger has had injury problems and has not played regularly, and it was the right decision to bring him off when he did.
According to WhoScored, the 29-year-old has made three starts and four substitute appearances in the Premier League and has made one start and one substitute appearance in the Champions League for the Reds so far this season.
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