Jamie Carragher believes Jurgen Klopp missed an opportunity to throw everything at Manchester United in the latter stages of Saturday’s game.
The Liverpool legend has admitted he would have liked to have seen the German take a more fearless approach by sacrificing a more defensively-inclined player for another attacking threat.
Klopp’s men were frustrated from start to finish by a United side lacking of any ambition and content to sit deep and allow the Reds to come at them.
It was the nature of Jose Mourinho’s approach that led Carragher to feel the home side could have pushed even harder for all three points.
“Jurgen Klopp made changes but he still kept the three-man midfield the same,” he told Sky Sports.
“Manchester United showed such a lack of ambition it was worth taking a risk by leaving Coutinho on and bringing on another attacking player.”
“Yes, you can get done on the counter but it was obvious United were here for a 0-0 and hoping to nick a goal from a set-piece or a counter-attack. I think Liverpool should have taken the risk to take (Georginio) Wijnaldum or (Emre) Can off.”
“It’s not easy as a manager but I’d have taken that chance earlier and the substitutions shouldn’t have been just player for player, but more tactical.”
“It would have given Liverpool an extra attacking player on the pitch – it could have cost them the game, but it could have won them the game – but the position Liverpool are in, it was a game they had to go for.”
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In retrospect, bringing on Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Daniel Sturridge or Dominic Solanke earlier would have been wise.
Nonetheless, making that decision during the game would have been incredibly hard for Klopp, with the Reds constantly teasing signs of edging closer to the breakthrough.
Given how the game panned out, Liverpool could have even afforded to bring Jordan Henderson off in aid of adopting an all-out attacking effort.
Mourinho’s introduction of fresh counterattacking threats in Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard, however, may have been a contributing factor in putting Klopp off the idea of unbalancing his team.
Second half changes remain to be a subject up for debate when discussing the Liverpool manager.