The Reds display on Sunday has given the manager some tough calls to make ahead of Thursday night
If you’d reacted the same as most at the news of 7 changes to the lineup to start against Stoke on Sunday, you’d have felt a slight touch of ‘oh, no.. ‘ with a sense that you were doing those players selected an injustice. They can surely at least match Stoke, we thought.
As it happens, things didn’t turn out too badly and Jurgen himself was even pleasantly surprised by the scoreline as the Reds romped to a comfortable 4-1 win which saw both Daniel Sturridge and Divock Origi impress.
The problem, of course, is that now Klopp has a slight dilemma ahead of the return leg against Dortmund on Thursday, giving him some very tough calls to make.
Speaking ahead of the match, to Liverpoolfc.com, Klopp said: “That’s a good thing if I have to think about the line-up or something. That’s what I do most of the time, to be honest!
“If all players play like this then I have to make hard decisions. That’s not my hobby but that’s the best thing to do as a manager and hopefully we have to make hard decisions for Thursday.”
Sunday against Stoke saw the forwards put on great showings but Joe Allen was another real standout, alongside his young midfield partner Kevin Stewart. Whilst Nathaniel Clyne and Alberto Moreno were both highly impressive at full back.
It is something that puts Klopp in a difficult, but happy, position for Thursday night and a number of the Red’s most important players got a good rest which pleased the manager.
He continued: “We need more opportunities. You cannot go through this big number of games always with the same line-up.
“[It was] unbelievable that we could rest Phil Coutinho – he’s in brilliant shape and very important for us.
“Adam Lallana only [played] 30 minutes, [but] okay he was running all over the pitch.
“It’s really good for us. Mama [Sakho] could watch the game very relaxed and Dejan [Lovren] was on the bench.”
