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Jurgen Klopp said he gambled on six changes to his Liverpool team at Fulham in order to save his players from burn-out in their bid to win the Premier League title.
Having dropped five points in their last two league games, drawing 2-2 at Manchester United before a 1-0 home defeat against Crystal Palace, Liverpool’s 3-1 win at Craven Cottage moved them into second place, level on points with leaders Arsenal and a point clear of champions Manchester City.
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Another win at Everton in the Merseyside derby on Wednesday would take Liverpool four points clear of City before their trip to Brighton 24 hours later.
But after his players failed to overturn a 3-0 first-leg deficit in Thursday’s Europa League quarterfinal second-leg against Atalanta in Italy (Liverpool won 1-0 in Bergamo), Klopp said he had no choice to rest key players, including Mohamed Salah and Alexis Mac Allister, against Fulham.
“I made the changes 100 percent sure that we had to,” Klopp said in his post-match press conference. “We play on Wednesday again, so I need to make the changes before the players give me the obvious sign that they’re done.
“For the boys, it’s tough. You have to get through this. But all of these boys have massive quality. We won the last game [against Atalanta], but nobody felt that, it didn’t help. But it was still a win. I felt there was a good chance we could make the next step today and the boys did that.
“I liked the performance, I liked the options. It’s a good squad situation. We need all of them, we need to fight through games and we have the derby to focus on now.”
Goals from Trent Alexander-Arnold, Ryan Gravenberch and Diogo Jota sealed victory for Liverpool, with Timothy Castagne having made it 1-1 just before half-time. But having ended their mini-slump, Klopp said that the lack of directions means his side can now focus solely on the Premier League title race.
“We didn’t gain a lot of points in that period, but it was still one or two,” Klopp said. “We didn’t win games, but nobody expected us to be where we are now.
“It’s the run-in now, no interruptions any more, no internationals or Europe — we can all concentrate on the league and that’s what we will do.
“Maybe fortune will be on our side, but we have to win as many games as possible, get as many points, have lucky moments. It will be intense and an interesting race all the way.”