Jurgen Klopp admitted that he was left with a ‘problem’ after Liverpool were taken to extra time in their FA Cup defeat to Manchester United on Sunday.
The Reds held a 2-1 lead going into the 87th minute before Antony’s equaliser prompted an extra half-hour, during which the visitors restored their advantage but ended up on the wrong side of a 4-3 scoreline.
Speaking to the media after the match (via liverpoolfc.com), the German named three players that he ‘could have’ substituted due to fatigue, only for the see-saw nature of how the game transpired to scupper his plans.
Klopp said: “The problem is we didn’t even know who to take off. For a while it was alright, in 90 minutes everything would have been fine. But then with extra-time, it was like options were now not [there].
“We can talk now we bring the kids – we all said that all the time, you have to bring them in the right moment. They are fantastic but it was not the right moment.
“You just saw, we could have [taken off] Macca definitely, Wataru [Endo] definitely, Darwin [Nunez] definitely, Lucho [Diaz] we did then, Joey [Gomez]. They play all the time the boys and today, this extra time.”
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Gomez and Diaz were withdrawn in extra time, but Mac Allister, Endo and Nunez all remained on the pitch for the full 120+ minutes.
Yesterday’s match was the last one of nine in a frantic 31-day period for Liverpool, who’ve also had to negotiate numerous injuries to key players, so it was quite understandable that some of the Reds were running on fumes during the additional half-hour at Old Trafford.
Of the 870 minutes of football we’ve played (not including stoppage time) since the 4-1 win at Brentford a month ago, the Japan captain was on the pitch for 765 and the Argentina midfielder for 652 (Transfermarkt).
Nunez played a meagre 247 by comparison, but discounting the matches for which he was unavailable through injury, that tally is out of a maximum of 570 (Transfermarkt), and Klopp would’ve been trying to manage the 24-year-old’s minutes given that he’s only recently returned to action.
The usually razor-sharp Uruguayan endured a costly lapse in concentration towards the end of extra time when giving away the ball dangerously close to goal, with his mistake culminating in Marcus Rashford making it 3-3 and turning the game in United’s favour.
In the end, yesterday was just one match too far for a group of players who’ve gone to the well so frequently for Liverpool during a hectic season, but hopefully everyone will come back from international duty refreshed and ready to tackle the final seven weeks of a campaign which could still come to a glorious crescendo.
Imo, it was simply a bridge too far, if the team is running out of steam the FA Cup is the one to fail in. Now that distraction has gone we hopefully can build up to the Premier league win and Europa league that I personally see as a better prize.