Virgil van Dijk was replaced during Liverpool’s defeat to Brentford, and Jurgen Klopp has explained why. The centre-back was substituted at halftime in the 3-1 defeat to the Bees.
Virgil van Dijk has been subbed off for the first time all season after only 45 minutes against Brentford. đź‘€
The Bees had 9 shots, six on target, and two goals in the first half. pic.twitter.com/PQgjez5kDm
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Liverpool were well below par in the opening 45 minutes. They found themselves two goals behind at the interval courtesy of an Ibrahima Konate own goal and a Yoanee Wissa header.
However, Wissa also had two goals disallowed for offisde as the Reds were all over the show in defence.
Why Was Van Dijk Substituted Against Brentford
Klopp made a triple substitution at the break, with van Dijk being withdrawn in the place of Joel Matip due to a hamstring issue.
Andy Robertson and Naby Keita came on for Kostas Tsimikas and Harvey Elliott respectively.
On the triple change, Klopp told Sky Sports: “I hope it’s no injury. Virg said I’m fine, he got treatment of the hamstring so we said no risk, so he was out because of that.
“The other two, we wanted fresh legs and different skill sets if you want, we needed. Kostas in the first half, Robo in the second half because we had too many passes and on the right-side we had a problem that everyone was passing short.
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“We needed one option for in behind. Of course, that’s usually Mo [Salah] but Harvey is allowed to play there or Trent [Alexander-Arnold] when he’s around.
“On the left, we needed someone going in behind. You could see immediately the situation when Robo goes down the line and we get a corner. In the end, you don’t lose a game if you do everything right. For sure, we didn’t do everything right.
“We are very critical of ourselves and rightly so tonight but there were moments that would have turned the game.”
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