Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has been criticised.
The Reds managed to beat Tottenham Hotspur in dramatic fashion as Roberto Firmino headed home a late winner, but that hasn’t protected Klopp from the backlash.
Mohamed Salah opened the scoring for Liverpool before in-form Spurs forward Son Heung-min grabbed the equalizer for Jose Mourinho’s team.
Klopp was forced to pick a fairly threadbare squad as Rhys Williams was partnered next to Fabinho at centre-back. Joel Matip’s back spasm was worse than first thought.
On the bench were Naby Keita and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, men who have struggled with injury problems this season, while Klopp could also have called on the services of Takumi Minamino and Divock Origi.
Despite calling for a relaxation of the substitutes rule to allow Premier League bosses to call on five replacements instead of three, Klopp decided not to give any of his starters a rest and opted to make no changes during the 90 minutes.
This has led to criticism of the gaffer for complaining about the strain the busy schedule is placing on the players, despite not giving any of them a rest during the game.
Could this also mean that Klopp doesn’t trust Minamino or Origi to replace any of the standard front three of Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane or Mohamed Salah?
The Liverpool squad have a cluster of players who have played a massive amount of football this season. Andy Robertson and Mohamed Salah have played over 1,600 minutes in all competitions, while eight others have more than 1,000 already.
Should Klopp shuffle his pack more? The manager has already come under fire for fielding Diogo Jota in the Champions League match against Midtjylland, and now he’s out for six weeks.
Liverpool are playing again on Saturday as they take on Crystal Palace away from home in the early kick-off. Will we see a repeat of the Tottenham game?