Liverpool missed a great opportunity to steer clear of their rivals in the chase for a Champions League place when the Merseyside club were held to a 2-2 draw by Bournemouth at Anfield despite leading 2-1 with just five minutes to go.
Joshua King got the all-important goal for the Cherries and while the point did extend the lead for the Reds over Manchester City, Jurgen Klopp has come under fire for bringing on Joel Matip for Philippe Coutinho in the second half.
The Reds were leading 2-1 thanks to goals from Coutinho and Divock Origi and to the surprise of everyone, Klopp decided to take off the Brazilian after the hour mark. Many have lambasted Klopp for making the defensive switch but the German cleared the air by stating that Coutinho actually was sick during the game.
“We had to change Phil because he felt sick at half-time. He vomited.
“He said he feels better now – that’s good – but it was clear when he gave the sign then we had to change,” added the German manager. “It’s no joy when you have to take off the best player in this moment on the pitch, because he played really well.”
Liverpool were poor in the game against Bournemouth and a sloppy back pass by Georginio Wijnaldum was the reason why the Cherries took the lead early in the game. Ragnar Klavan was also to blame for the second goal conceded and it again was a surprise as to why Matip was brought on in the second half and not starting the game.
“Maybe, I don’t know, it was back problems. I can explain exactly how it was,” said Klopp, looking for an explanation. “He came on the pitch this morning when we had a little, little, little session [and] it looked good and then he had to fix his boots and it didn’t look good.
“Obviously, you can find somebody in the game who can fix your boots, but I thought that’s not 100 per cent and this game is 100 per cent. We brought him on because he was warming up and we asked again and it was then better,” added the German. “Probably he could have played 90 minutes, I’m not sure.”
