Jurgen Klopp has revealed that he originally intended to start Darwin Nunez in Liverpool’s League Cup semi-final first leg clash with Fulham.
Nunez came off the bench, along with Cody Gakpo, to turn the game around, laying on two assists
The striker was left cursing goalkeeper Bernd Leno on more than one occasion for not being able to get his own name on the scoresheet.
Liverpool boast 30 goal contributions from substitutes this season, with Klopp hailing the impact his players continue to have
When sharing his disbelief at the fact that Nunez hadn’t scored against Fulham, the German revealed why the striker hadn’t started the game.
Klopp
“He plays outstanding, I have to say it, There are so many things I love about his game.
“The first year was a year to adapt and he scored here and there. But now he contributes in all games. He would have started tonight but he had cramps in the last game. Three days later, he doesn’t start.
“The boys don’t start because they score or not score. My belief and trust in them, as long as they behave properly, is endless. They deserve it because of the effort they put in.
“That we can bring Cody and Darwin from the bench, that is a proper change. On top of that, we changed the system and the formation and the set-up. All of a sudden the high press was not organised anymore. Problems there.
“We tried to fix that from outside. Then all of a sudden the protection wasn’t there because we changed a couple of things. But the offensive situations were much better. It is good and he (Nunez) is a big part of that.
“I don’t know how to explain the Darwin situation. I am so happy about our crowd, how they take it. I’m so happy about Darwin’s reaction and how he takes it.
“I don’t know how to explain the Darwin situation. I am so happy about our crowd, how they take it. I’m so happy about Darwin’s reaction and how he takes it.
“But you cannot be more unlucky in these finishing situations, that’s not possible. He does absolutely everything right, yet ball not in. I haven’t seen it back but for me it was a clear goal but the ball was not in. I cannot believe how that happened. Leno is a good goalie.
“And then he still sets up the other goal. I think that is really special to do that again. Today for Cody, super special. The impact they had was really big but before that we found our feet already.”
Klopp continued:
“(I put the impact down to) the boys. We have more players available usually.
“I hope we all know we love the kids but you have to bring them in the right moment, or when you have to take risks but it must be the right moment. But when we have them all available, the quality we can bring on then is pretty good.
“We have a lot not available but the boys who came on have real quality, obviously, already The others will have that properly in the future. That is the reason for it, we see that.”
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