Jurgen Klopp shares reasons for Naby Keita and Trent Alexander-Arnold substitutions in Palace draw
Jurgen Klopp has given an explanation for why he made substitutions during the unremarkable draw against Crystal Palace.
Naby Keita, who received a yellow card earlier, was replaced by Harvey Elliott during half-time.
Trent Alexander-Arnold, on the other hand, had a disappointing performance and was replaced by another player 19 minutes before the end of the match.
Klopp has denied any claims that Alexander-Arnold is lacking in confidence and has instead attributed his substitution to fatigue.
“Trent plays all the games for us and before the game we thought whether it would be one game too much for him, but he started,” said the Liverpool boss. “The reason (to substitute him) was purely because of that.”
Asked if it the right-back was suffering a lack of confidence, Klopp responded: “No. In the few games we won he was one of our much, much, much, much better players.
“Trent Alexander-Arnold, when he is not performing, everybody is talking about it. When he is performing nobody speaks about it apart from when he’s involved in goals. He set up super goals in the last two league games.
“He’s okay. It’s just the amount of games, we took him off and he will have a day longer to rest and he will be fine again.”
Of Keita, Klopp added: “Naby had an early yellow card and then two fouls, not really bad fouls, but situations that took him out of the game and he couldn’t contact players any more. That was the reason (he went off).”
Jurgen Klopp shares reasons for Naby Keita and Trent Alexander-Arnold substitutions in Palace draw
