Jurgen Klopp admits he made a mistake in starting Alexis Mac Allister against Wolves, revealing the Liverpool midfielder was ‘relieved’ when he was replaced at half-time.
Liverpool laboured in the first-half at Molineux, behind after seven minutes after Hwang Hee-Chan’s goal with Pedro Neto causing plenty of problems for the visitors.
An equaliser from Cody Gakpo got the Reds back on track however in the second-half with Andy Robertson putting them in front five minutes from time with an own goal from Hugo Bueno sealing all three points.
It marked an impressive turnaround with a number of Liverpool players struggling in the first period, particularly Mac Allister. Feeling the effects from two games for Argentina, including Tuesday’s World Cup qualifier against Bolivia which took place at a high altitude, the former Brighton star toiled and picked up an early yellow card.
The 24-year-old was replaced by Luis Diaz at half-time.
‘The good thing about the first half was that it was that bad that I didn’t think we could play the second half like that,’ Klopp said.
‘Obviously we wanted to start completely differently, but for whatever reason it was not possible for the boys, you can see it.
‘Low energy level, Macca [Mac Allister], some others as well, you could just see they struggled. We couldn’t change five times at half-time, so we thought we’d change the system and one player, and give us a bit more speed up front, natural speed.
‘He had some good moments in the first half but he was not disappointed to come off, more relief.’
Liverpool came from behind to secure a huge win at Newcastle United prior to the international break and while pleased with the resilience shown by his side, Klopp warned they cannot keep relying on late comebacks.
‘It’s really early days in the season but we need to take all the information we get. Turning game around is helpful in a season but we cannot rely on it, we cannot,’ he said.
‘We have to play better in the first half of games generally. We are not stable yet, that is not possible. Too many things are new. I am ready to work on that and the boys are too.
‘They did not want to wave the white flag and that is good. When you win the lesser good games you can have a good season. The boys reacted really well.’
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