“At half-time he vomits and then said he feels better now. That’s good”, said Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, on why he decided to take off playmaker Phillipe Coutinho at half-time during his side’s frustrating 2-2 draw against Bournemouth on Wednesday.
The vomiting tales, though, was far from done. Here, the German was talking about Liverpool’s much vaunted defence, which has been vulnerable all season long,
“We left it open and the second ball after a set piece. That made me actually nearly vomit. That’s, of course, not nice, but we have to take it.
“It’s my responsibility, all of this, and I have to be more clear in this situation, but I will find a solution for this,” Klopp said, about letting Josh King level scores through a set-piece goal.
Klopp went on to lament that withdrawing Coutinho forced him to alter his team’s shape in the second half, “But it was clear when he gives the sign that we have to change. That is no joy when you have to take off the best player on the pitch because he played really well”
“The decision was to then organise a little bit differently with the three at the back, plus the two in front, with Lucas and Emre [Can] to give the full-backs the opportunity to use the space on the wing against a 4-4-2 system,” he said.
Liverpool lie third in the English Premier League table with 60 points.