Jurgen Klopp made five changes to his starting eleven for the game against Newcastle United but explained why Kostas Tsimikas wasn’t a sixth.
Speaking with the media after the victory at St. James’ Park (via Liverpool’s club website), the 54-year-old said: “Look, it’s my job to make decisions, I don’t have to do a lot of other things.
“For example, Kostas Tsimikas would’ve deserved to play and Robbo would have had a break as well, but when you change one full-back and a centre-half and there are three changes in the last line, what I think then is ‘No, don’t do that, let’s do it like this.’
“The decisions are not that difficult because the boys are all in a good shape, really all in a good shape”.
It’s a fine balance when changing a side, you want enough so that players are being rested but not too many that disrupts the rhythm and heavily affects your chances of winning.
For the boss to name check the Greek defender, it shows that he was possibly the next closest change that could have been made and he was unlucky to miss out.
With the opportunities for games running out, it’s going to be hard for the German to keep everyone happy but as he said – it’s his job to make those hard decisions.