Klopp suggests some of the Liverpool squad weren’t happy with his team selection vs Leeds

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Jurgen Klopp has suggested that he had some unhappy Liverpool forwards on the bench during last night’s win over Leeds United.

The Reds pulverised Leeds for a second successive season, winning 6-1 at Elland Road. The result topped off what was a wholly positive night for Liverpool, with Luis Diaz also returning from injury after six months out.

Having missed so much football, it wasn’t a surprise to see Diaz take his place on the bench. But with the likes of Darwin Nunez and Roberto Firmino pushing to start, Klopp admitted to BBC Sport that picking the Reds forward line has now become a pleasingly difficult job.

“It’s really helpful that the [attacking] boys are all there, they push each other a lot in training sessions. When you see ‘OK if I don’t train well, then he can play, he can play, he can play’ that changes everything to be honest,” said the manager.

“Now they are finally all back, hopefully they stay. Today, tough decisions for the line-up, the boys on the bench, nobody was really happy because a lot of players would have deserved to start tonight after a really long training week. So, very comfortable situation for me for the first time and now we have to keep going.”

Klopp gets his fire-power back

For the final eight games of the season – hopefully anyway – Jurgen finally has all six elite striking options available to him. How he chooses to use them will be key to if Liverpool can make an unlikely top-four dash.

Last night, he got the balance absolutely right. There may have been some raised eyebrows to see Diogo Jota in the line-up, the Portuguese hadn’t scored for over a year after all. But in the end, it paid off handsomely. Two goals and an assist capped a wonderful night’s work for Jota.

Elsewhere it was a similarly productive tale for Mohamed Salah. Of the six options Klopp has, Mo is perhaps the only one truly assured of his place. He underlined exactly why last night, ploughing in two lovely finishes.

Cody Gakpo meanwhile staked his claim with another really encouraging display. A tap-in was followed up with a delightful little through ball for Salah to claim his second goal, while his all-round play was generally positive.

From the bench, Nunez is maybe the one who would have been most frustrated at having to watch from the side lines. But the Uruguayan did his chances of a start on Saturday no harm at all with a beautifully taken goal in a high-energy 10 minute cameo.

Firmino was similarly industrious and has shown recently that Liverpool will be missing out on so much by letting him walk out of the door next month. For Diaz, it was a predictably rusty few minutes, but he’s working his way back from a lengthy absence. On last night’s evidence, it would be a bonus if he can get back in the starting line-up by the end of the season. In the meantime, expect he, Nunez and Firmino to keep pushing on the training pitch.