JURGEN KLOPP HAS no regrets about leaving striker Daniel Sturridge out of Liverpool’s Europa League semi-final defeat to Villarreal on Thursday and insists he would make the same decision again.
Despite scoring in his three successive appearances prior to the 1-0 first-leg loss at El Madrigal, Sturridge found himself on the bench in Spain and was an unused substitute.
Klopp admitted the decision was taken in expectation of a more offensive approach from Villarreal and that defeat naturally brings questions over his selection.
However, the German insisted he felt he was making the right choice at the time.
“I was always thinking more about the strengths of a player, rather than the weaknesses. [On Thursday] I didn’t think about his weaknesses, we just had to find a line-up which knows how to defend against a side like Villarreal without any training time together,” said the Liverpool boss, whose side face Swansea City in the Premier League on Sunday.
After the game everybody was asking me if I had the same feeling, about whether Villarreal were pleased with a draw. If you watch a few more Villarreal games you will see that usually they play completely differently – usually they are much more dominant.
“You can’t be fourth in the Spanish league without being a really good side that plays football – it’s not all about the counter-attack. There were a few points in the game when you could see this and we had to defend and find stability.
“With decisions like this [leaving Sturridge out] I always have two questions: ‘Was it the right decision?’ With a 1-0 defeat, you have to say that I did not get it 100 per cent right. And: ‘Would I do it again?’ [The answer to that is] Yes.
Then it’s finished, I don’t have to think about it. We can think about what might have happened with Daniel from the beginning, or half-time.
“I don’t know what would have happened but that’s my life, I’m a manager and I make decisions. It was a decision made for this particular line-up, not against Daniel. That’s all.”
Klopp added that managing Sturridge’s fitness also plays a role in his team selection, denying that he is testing the forward by affording Divock Origi and Roberto Firmino more game time.
“If you want you can say it like that but it was a completely different situation. Daniel was always coming back from injury but now he is fit for the longest time since he came here from Chelsea and that’s very, very, very important,” he continued.
We could’ve played him in the first games hoping he would have done something special, but that would not have been the right decision for him because he would have got injured again. The Premier League, Europa League, they’re too quick, too intense [for that].
“Daniel’s mentality is really good, really confident, because he has all those qualities and he knows about his qualities. So my job is to try and help the player and help the team in this moment.”
Mike Ditka is an idiot. His response was entirely predictable.
Unsure where this protest is going. Aside from anything else, it’s been fun to see the likes of Ditka, Jerry Jones etc. get their knickers in a twist.
It really is quite scary how jingoistic some old people in America are. It’s a feckin national anthem lads, get over yourselves. There are things bigger than you or it.
Kapernick is fast turning into an absolute hero. There’s nothing wrong with being proud of your country and it’s military, but putting a flag and some quaint old song ahead of people’s lives has no place in today’s society.
Think the whole thing a class issue rather than a racial issue. The entire protest is a load of codswallop.
@ET PHONE HOME: Class and race go hand in hand in America
Facts please Stephen.
Not your opinion!
It’s marked as an opinion piece…
Hi Eddie,
A) It’s an opinion piece as Redzone has been for five years now.
B) It’s clearly marked as opinion piece.
C) As for facts, Keith Lamont Scott was shot dead by a Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer, Mike Ditka is an idiot and Colin Kaepernick has right on his side. Not sure what more ‘facts’ you need.
D) Have a nice evening.
Oooooo, that’s a deep burn Eddie….
Are those Eddie’s options? I would go with E. Read the piece first before commenting! I ain’t no journalist writer type person but it’s always best to leave out such things as calling someone ‘an idiot’, regardless of how true it may be, it just stoops to a level it doesn’t need to go. ‘The moral high ground to which you aspire could turn into into a slippery slope.’ As for my option… I’m gonna pick D.
Another fact might be that he had a gun and disobeyed both the police officer and his relative who were shouting at him to stop multiple times. Another fact might be that 5 white men were also shot dead by police the same day. Another fact might be that not one of those shootings resulted in race riots where black people were getting attacked by vicious mobs of whites, looting stores, destroying public and private property. A reactive opinion on those facts might be that were such riots were to take place the people perpetrating them would not be mollycoddled by the media and referred to as “protesters”. There are 2 sides to every story. I respect your opinions and thank you for writing the article but my personal assessment of the facts leads me to a conclusion different to yours. Which I am sure you will respect also.
What the some of the cops have been doing is totally wrong but there are 30 shootings plus a week in Chicago black/black crime and there has never been any protests about it.
They are all on the bandwagon at this stage. CK tryna be relevant because he hasn’t been that on a football field in almost 3 years
Colin Keapernick is performing a peace civil protest designed to engage. It’s worked, it seems blacks aren’t allowed to protest peacefully or with violence without criticism. Fyi, there have been many many protests about crime in Chicago and beyond. You just don’t hear about it, why? Because their black and Noone gives a chit….. until those protests are about the white establishment.
I think one thing everyone can probably agree on is that the race issue and trouble at the moment in the US is one hell of a complex , emotive and deeply polarising subject. Rights , wrongs , double standards and hypocrisy on both sides.
YouTube Shannon Sharpe he’s brilliant at explaining. You will understand it after.