Why Klopp made ‘last minute changes’ to XI v Burnley & Leicester

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Jurgen Klopp was forced into a late change to his chosen sides that faced both Burnley at the weekend and Leicester on Tuesday…

According to Chris Bascombe in the Telegraph, Dejan Lovren was in the XI both times, but couldn’t overcome his back problem on either occasion.

As a result, the manager had to make very late switch-ups.

Against Burnley, Ragnar Klavan came into the lineup and was at fault for their goal, while in the League Cup, Joe Gomez was moved from right-back to centre-back and Jon Flanagan given a start.

This is interesting as it again shows the boss actually had no plans to use Gomez in his favoured central position.

Hopefully, Lovren will return at the weekend, although it says much about our defence if we’re waiting on him to solidify us, considering his shambolic display against Sevilla in his last outing.

As well as his mistakes, Lovren’s inability to get on the field consistently is a major flaw. Bascombe notes that the Croat has missed 37 of Liverpool’s 119 Premier League games since arriving from Southampton – almost one third.

This only reiterates the mistake of not buying a new central defender in the summer, but we’re getting bored of stating as much. It was mindbogglingly obvious and Liverpool are paying for it now. In our past four transfer windows, we’ve spent £4m on central defenders.

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