Jürgen Klopp on Liverpool fixture congestion: no “pre-planned” subs



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Liverpool play Aston Villa today and then they all disappear for the international break.

It’s always a bit scary when Liverpool’s best players disappear into other teams and other training regimes. Lesions abound is the usual sensation. This could encourage more turnover and deliberate substitutions, but the Liverpool manager says no.

“I don’t plan on substitutes before the game,” Jürgen Klopp said in the Liverpool Echo report.

“We react normally to the game situation. [The international break] it has no influence.

“If we all had a vacation afterwards, it would be a little different, but the boys no, they leave, I think four days later, they have to play almost everyone.

“And in between they have quite interesting trips. 30 hours of flight from one point to another and then to another.

“No, I make the decisions that suit the needs of the game.”

When specifically asked if he is concerned about the minutes Virgil van Dijk will have to play, Klopp was clear: “That goes for all my players.

“I know what you mean by Virgil being the center of the defense and I’m happy that nothing happened, but the situation was that we didn’t make it to the games.

“We got the games and we played them. Sometimes we have the option of six or seven players for two positions and other times we don’t. Sometimes there are no perfect solutions. For the Arsenal game we thought it was the best solution.

“Most of the boys want to play all the games. Virgil had no problem. The specific situation gave us the need to have all of our big guns, so to speak.

Can you imagine my image ignoring the cups if I had played with two children in the last line? This press conference would have been completely different, but it was just the need for 45 minutes or 60 minutes last night. The actual plan was 45 minutes and that was not a problem. It’s if it goes to say 80 minutes and that’s when it gets really intense, until then it’s not a problem at all.

“So we made the decision and it is, but with Joel injured and Fabinho it was not really planned to play.

“What Rhys Williams did last night looks great. Billy could have played too, but he was slightly injured.

“Having two children in the bottom line would have been too difficult. We wanted to win the game and we could have, but we didn’t. It was possible and that’s why we did it ”.

It is a hard and compressed season. These ridiculous international breakups make it more difficult. Let’s hope for the best here.

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