'Klopp underestimated the Merseyside derby'
Jurgen Klopp's team selection for the Merseyside derby suggested complacency and a lack of understanding of the importance of the game for the club, according to Liverpool legend Phil Thompson.
For Sunday's clash with Everton, Klopp made six changes from the side which won 7-0 in the Champions League in midweek, including leaving Philippe Coutinho and Roberto Firmino on the bench, replacing them with Dominic Solanke and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
'Soccer Saturday' pundit Phil Thompson believes the German coach underestimated the magnitude of the Merseyside derby with his persistence for rotation.
He told 'Sky Sports': "We, as Liverpool fans, have moaned about the rotation for a few weeks and it has come off previously, but this is a derby game. You play your best team in the derby.
"That selection worried me that he didn't understand how big a game it was. He's gone with a team to beat a mid-table team rather than win a derby game.
"If it was Manchester United he would have played a full-strength side, so it was maybe a bit of complacency as well as the rotation.
"It's always a risk rotating and for this game I just can't get my head around it as a Liverpool fan. I know it was important to him but we've all been fans for our lives.
"We knew they would park three buses and we needed that bit of craft which Coutinho brings. I'd have also kept Mohamed Salah on.
"He got his fingers burnt last January when he failed to rotate enough. But you see he's now made 20 changes more than any club so maybe he has taken that too far."