Gary Neville has claimed Jurgen Klopp took a ‘risk’ by naming Mo Salah as a substitute against Newcastle United yesterday.
The Egyptian did come on as a second-half substitute as Liverpool held out for a 1-0 victory against Eddie Howe’s in-form side at St. James Park after there was five changes made from the Reds side that defeated Villarreal 2-0 earlier this week.
Joe Gomez deputised for Trent Alexander-Arnold at right-back, Joel Matip came in for Ibrahima Konate and James Milner and Naby Keita were named in midfield in place of Thiago Alcantara and Fabinho.
The Egyptian King had to settle for a rare spot on the bench as Diogo Jota was named in the starting XI.
Klopp’s team selection paid off as Keita scored the only goal of the game with a well-taken finish after rounding the Newcastle ‘keeper and finishing past three defenders on the line.
Liverpool had only played their Champions League semi-final first leg tie on Wednesday night and the German boss therefore felt the need for rotation.
The Merseysiders travel to Spain for the return leg on Tuesday night so the former Borussia Dortmuns boss may have had one eye on that fixture.
You’d expect to see a different side take to the field at the Estadio de la Cerámica than the one that featured on Tyneside.
We now have enough strength in depth to be able to make changes and that was evident yesterday.
Although we weren’t at our ruthless best at the top end of the pitch, we remained solid all over the park and kept yet another clean sheet.
We’re not sure it was necessarily a ‘risk’ taken by Klopp, he trusts his players and rightly viewed yesterday’s fixture as the perfect opportunity to offer some rest to our star men.
You can watch Neville discussing Klopp’s team selection by clicking here.
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