With the Reds set to welcome old foes Manchester United to Anfield this weekend, it is understandable to see Jurgen Klopp make multiple changes to his squad.
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Liverpool ended their group phase of the Europa League season with a 2-1 loss to Union SG. This defeat had little impact though with the Anfield outfit already sealing the top spot in the group. Hence, they had the luxury to rest majority of their senior players for this contest. With the Reds set to welcome old foes Manchester United to Anfield this weekend in the Premier League, it is understandable to see Jurgen Klopp make multiple changes to his squad.
Despite the defeat in the Europa League contest against Union SG there were some positives for Liverpool to take. One of which was Jarell Quansah scoring his first goal for the club. Jurgen Klopp was happy for the young talent after getting on the scoresheet. “It was important. I think we all know against Crystal Palace that he played not a bad game against Palace but if you are then that involved in kind of the penalty, a strange one, but we are involved, that’s not cool,” Klopp, quoted on the club’s website, said after the match.
He added: “And I am really happy that he could see the other side of the metal and score this goal today. That’s what I liked the most from all of the boys – that they really gave it a proper go. And that’s most important that we don’t think, ‘OK, it’s difficult, they are a really good team and do what they do every week.’ We have to find a way to get used to each other. And especially Jarell, with either side Ibou and then Joe in the second half, that was really good. They had to defend big spaces in the counter-attacks and I thought they did that really. So, really happy for him.”
Klopp then provided his assessment of the result and performance. He believed his much-changed Liverpool side grew into the game in the second half. “I think we definitely all saw the same game, so for us it was a deserved win for Union. Even though I heard now the first goal might have been offside but nobody can tell properly. We will see that, but who cares? They are well set up, they are top of the table, they played a stronger side, I mixed up the team completely, so I think the changes we made, the amount of changes, were too much for rhythm. We needed to grow into the game. I am really happy that happened in the second half more and more and that we gave it a game, a proper game in the end. Before that, they gave us possession, won the balls on counter-attack and it was really tricky, to be honest,” he explained.
He added: “It was pretty intense on a really difficult pitch. It was not great and you saw how intense it was, a couple of players had cramps for Union. So, in the end we could have scored the equaliser and it would have been nice, we would have loved to have got the point here. For some it was a really important experience and for others good for rhythm. I saw good performances and, of course, as a team it is not a fair assessment if I say now they are top of the table in Belgium and we come here, bring kids – altogether that’s really difficult. But I thought we gave it a go and that’s OK for me. Nobody got hurt, nobody is injured, so we recover, go home and go again.”
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