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It’s fair to say that Jürgen Klopp hasn’t had the week he wanted.
No wonder Virgil van Dijk has been talked about a lot, but this was a Liverpool that existed without him. It is one who suffered with him at the Camp Nou, at the Etihad and, as it may seem lobotomized now: Villa Park.
But you would always want to be on Van Dijk’s side. As things were, we were able to see an alternate reality that was born out of necessity. Joe Gomez and Fabinho excelled in adaptation and desire for first ball, James Milner used his crafty old soul to tremendous effect in the final 20 minutes.
However, there was a reality that Klopp had always wanted for 2020/21 that became the biggest talking point of the post-match analysis, and it focused on his lineup and, what felt like pre-planned substitutions at each stage, awaiting course injuries.
Curtis Jones had a start. The youngster has earned it and despite a period of adaptation, he was adjusting to the game by the halfway point. He did not come out again, but was replaced by Jordan Henderson, pondering something that seemed programmed.
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That’s not too out of the ordinary in any game. However, the triple substitution of the three forwards in the hour was equally audacious and fascinating by Klopp. This was not done on a whim, you feel like any outcome at that point those changes would have been made.
On second thought, the manager was justified. And he will certainly cite again that this is something he wanted for the Premier League. Five changes is something you will see in most of Liverpool’s Champions League games – the gamble is on making sure the results stick with them.
It’s not about priority or Klopp favoring competition. It is about one hand feeding the other. We talk a lot about where the likes of Takumi Minamino get games, well, look no further than tonight.
Whether it is 60 or 30 minutes of playing time, the outlier comes from the selections and the changes that are clearly planned in advance in this case, it is what will make watching European football different from national for most of the reds. Liverpool got the result, but there was an alternate reality that Klopp clearly wanted present, even without Van Dijk.
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