Jurgen Klopp made six changes to his Liverpool team to face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in an effort to provoke a reaction from his struggling side.
Liverpool were beaten 4-1 by Manchester City on Saturday in the Premier League as Pep Guardiola’s side underlined the gulf between the rivals. The Reds have been way off their usual pace this campaign and are well adrift of the Champions League places.
Klopp opted to make wholesale changes for the midweek match against Chelsea, dropping Mohamed Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson to the bench. Virgil van Dijk was replaced by Joel Matip due to illness, while Harvey Elliott and Cody Gakpo were also missing from the starting line-up.
Liverpool had lost their last three games in all competitions coming into the match against Chelsea. Speaking to Sky Sports before kick-off in west London, Klopp explained that his decisions were taken in an attempt to find some freshness in his ailing squad.
Asked how many of his changes were enforced, he replied: “Some. Virgil is obviously unavailable. And all the rest is like, some get a rest, some need a rest, and a lot of players get an opportunity to show up tonight – and that’s it.
“We needed fresh legs – that was clear – we needed fresh minds as well. And, how I said before, it didn’t work out that well in the last few weeks, so that’s the moment that you have to make changes. So I really hope that we can show the reaction, when it’s not the same team, obviously, but still as a group we have to show a reaction.”
The changes did not appear to have had the desired effect, with Chelsea dominating the opening 45 minutes. Liverpool's changed backline of Joe Gomez, Matip, Ibrahima Konate and Kostas Tsimikas struggled and Liverpool were fortunate that Reece James ' goal was ruled out by VAR for offside in the build-up.
Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher was surprised by Klopp’s decision, with many of those dropping out stalwarts of his usual selections.
"It’s more than you do expect and what Jurgen Klopp’s done since he came in is there’s certain players who just play every game, you know, and those players, some of them aren’t playing tonight,” he said on Sky Sports.
“You look at the back four, Virgil van Dijk, that’s down to illness we’re told but Trent Alexander-Arnold you’re always expecting to be on that team sheet. Mo Salah being another one, Andy Robertson being another one.
He hasn’t just changed the team, he’s changed mainstays really who are there week-in week-out – not just this season but for years gone by. Is that to do with the performance against Manchester City?
“Is it to do with the fact that Liverpool have three tough games in a week? It’s a bit of both. There’s no doubt that what happened at the Etihad on Saturday is certainly in the back of his mind and he had to make changes on the back of that performance."
