Jurgen Klopp has prepared his team well ahead of Liverpool vs Ajax. It’s all thanks to a decision that was smarter than it first seemed.
Liverpool vs Ajax may well be the Reds’ biggest game of the month. Win and they’re qualifying from their Champions League group – that means a rest against Midtjylland next week.
Lose, however, and that Midtjylland game becomes even more important, necessitating a full-strength team.
That would be a near-disaster, then. This month is already packed with fixtures but Liverpool are also dealing with an injury crisis.
They simply don’t have the players to stretch to all these games. A rest next week would be a life-saver.
Thus beating Ajax is very important. Klopp may well go all-out for it, which is difficult given his personnel limitations.
But that makes a decision against Brighton a stroke of genius.
All areas
Klopp left four particular players out of his starting XI at the AMEX. Joel Matip wasn’t even in the squad, while Jordan Henderson, Curtis Jones and Sadio Mane were all on the bench.
As a result, all three are a bit fresher than their teammates. All will almost certainly start against Ajax then – a good thing as they’re all good players.
But Klopp has been smart here. He’s effectively given himself a smart player in every area of the team.
He’s got Matip as a fresh centre-half and Henderson as a fresh holding-midfielder shielding the defence.
Jones is there with some energy to break from midfield, while Mane will inject pace into the attack.
Klopp has covered all his bases then and given his team extra life all over the pitch. It’s a very clever way of doing things and it will, hopefully, be exactly what Liverpool need this evening.
Klopp made a similar smart decision involving Mohamed Salah, too. Click here to read all about it.
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