While the midfielder has been in good form on the pitch in recent weeks, the decision was taken due to political rather than sporting reasons.
Due to Shaqiri's Kosovan-Albanian heritage, and particularly after the celebration that he did after scoring for Switzerland against Serbia which resulted in a fine by FIFA, it was thought that the abuse that he would receive in the Serbian capital would not be worth the rsik.
"I've made a lot of decisions in my life about team selection and the players accepted it." Liverpool boss Klopp wrote on the club's official website.
"We are here to play football and we want to focus on that. People here know the situation better.
"We have to cool the situation down. That's the world, that's how it is, politics has always influenced life. It could've been a story but we didn't want a story other than a football story.
"We have to be very strong football-wise. We are from Liverpool so we know how important atmosphere can be."