Liverpool head coach Jurgen Klopp has explained why three of his key players were amiss in Monday's FA Cup game. The German manager made nine changes to the starting XI that took on Manchester City in the Premier League on Thursday in his side's FA Cup Third Round clash with Wolves.
Only Dejan Lovren and James Milner were the players maintained from the starting lineup, while the likes of Rafael Camacho and Curtis Jones made their senior debut in the FA Cup.
Primarily, the Klopp sought to test his fringe players who have not actively featured in games this season. However, the 51-year-old revealed that minor injuries to Henderson, Lallana and Van Dijk prevented them from possibly playing a role in Monday night's encounter.
"I had to make these changes. A few players were really ill and then in the last session yesterday we lost Adam Lallana with a minor thing, but it's enough not [to be able] to play – and Hendo had something from the Man City game," he said prior to the start of the encounter with Wolves``.
"We had to make a few changes already, it was clear. Virgil cannot play; he is at home and hopefully it is nothing, but he has played all the games so far, so we had to try to find a solution for that – and we found it, hopefully, with Fabinho.
"For all the rest, a few guys I want to see and we are able to do that, but of course we have to be sensitive with our situation. We came through a very intense period quite OK. The next intense period is waiting.
"I know people want to win every game and see the same players week in, week out, but somebody has to make the decisions and in that case, I am the man for [doing] that."
