Jurgen Klopp defends decision to leave Philippe Coutinho out of Liverpool's defeat to Manchester City
Despite appearing to miss Coutinho's invention in the final third, Klopp insisted that the rest would benefit the player overall as the season progresses
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Jürgen Klopp defended his call to leave Philippe Coutinho at home for Liverpool's heavy 5-0 defeat at Manchester City on Saturday, claiming it was a “decision for the season”.
Klopp's side were already 1-0 down to a Sergio Aguero goal when Sadio Mané saw red in the closing stages of the first half for a high and dangerous challenge on Ederson, which resulted in the City goalkeeper being stretchered off.
Liverpool's heads collectively dropped from that point onwards, with braces from Gabriel Jesus and Leroy Sane consigning Klopp to the heaviest defeat of his two-year tenure at Anfield.
Even before Mané's dismissal, however, Liverpool lacked their usual attacking verve, with Mohamed Salah spurning their one clear-cut opportunity shortly after the half-hour mark. It would be their final shot on goal of the afternoon.
Despite appearing to miss Coutinho's invention, Klopp insisted that the rest would benefit the player, who has not appeared for Liverpool since failing to force through a summer move to Barcelona but took to the field twice with the Brazil national team last week.
“I'm not sure it's that easy but if it's that easy it's cool, I have only to bring Phil in and everything is good again,” he said. “With Phil, we didn't create more chances against City in the past. It was the decision, no problem. Blame me for this, really no problem, but it was a decision for the season. He came back long flight, 15 minutes here, 15 minutes there, three weeks without training. We play on Wednesday, we play on Saturday, we play, play, play.
“I will have this situation all the time over the next three or four weeks, so we thought: 'OK, let's start immediately with this, give him three or four days of training and then he's available for us'."
On the specific absence of Coutinho's incisive passing, Klopp added: “We score a lot of goals and all the players on the pitch play these passes... You cannot play these passes better, you have only to make a little more of it. [Coutinho's] a fantastic player, that's really good, hopefully we can use him as quick as possible, but that's how it is.”
The Brazilian is in contention to return on Wednesday night when Liverpool entertain Sevilla at Anfield in their first Champions League group stage fixture for three years
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments