Klopp reveals reasons behind Skrtel for Lovren substitution
By Tom Bogert
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp told reporters what his reasons behind the Martin Skrtel for Dejan Lovren halftime substitution was all about.
As the honeymoon phase with Jurgen Klopp begins to become more normal, Klopp has taken his first set of stick for his decisions against Southampton.
Klopp replaced Dejan Lovren at halftime with Martin Skrtel as Liverpool were cruising with a two goal lead, it seemed as if the Reds were destined for more of the same from their last trip to St. Mary’s which resulted in a 6-1 win.
Skrtel was quite horrific upon his entry as he saw three goals hit in the back of Simon Mignolet’s net in 45 minutes, as Liverpool inexplicably lost 3-2.
The manager said his yellow card as well as the emotions of returning to a former club was why he cautiously pulled the Croatian, via Liverpool ECHO.
“His yellow card,” said Klopp. “I thought at the end of the first half it looked like the ref was not completely any more free of the emotion in the stadium. Maybe this situation was not okay.”
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Skrtel conceded a penalty, that Mignolet saved, and Klopp shared a few words on that incident.
“Okay, maybe it was a penalty – I don’t know,” said Klopp. “I thought we had to change this because it was clear that they will play a lot of long balls to Pelle and it’s not easy for a center-half to challenge for these without a yellow card, especially when the ref changed a bit the mood.”
Simply put, it was a bad day for Liverpool.
“It was not too good today for us today, obviously.”
The first international break of 2016 commenced after that match and Liverpool aren’t in action again until April, when they host Tottenham before traveling to Dortmund the following Thursday for leg one of the Europa League quarterfinals.