Jurgen Klopp Defends Liverpool Team Selection, Talks Injuries After Wolves Loss

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp defended making nine changes to his starting lineup in the Reds' 2-1 FA Cup defeat to Wolverhampton Wanderers on Monday and gave the latest on their injury problems.

The German rested every player who had started the 2-1 defeat to Manchester City for the trip to Molineux, apart from Dejan Lovren and James Milner.

Per MailOnline's Laurie Whitwell, Klopp said: "I had to make these changes. A few players were really ill and then in the last session we lost Adam Lallana with a minor thing. After City we had a few players with sore throats. There was no chance with pretty much all the players not here. We had to make late changes."

The coach explained that he had intended to use both Adam Lallana and Jordan Henderson, while Lovren—who went off with a hamstring injury after just six minutes—was not supposed to be starting.

"We have to be sensitive with our situation. We came through a very intense period quite OK. The next intense period is waiting," Klopp added.

Of his decision to start with Divock Origi and Daniel Sturridge up front, he said: "The intensity of the last few games gave me information it is not possible to start the same three players up front."

Sadio Mane was left out on Monday, while Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino came off the bench, but they were unable to rescue the situation.

Origi had cancelled out Raul Jimenez's first-half opener in the 51st minute, but Ruben Neves settled the tie with a fine strike four minutes later:

Among the changes Klopp made were debuts for teenagers Rafael Camacho, Curtis Jones and Lovren's replacement, Ki-Jana Hoever. The latter is just 16.

The Daily Telegraph's Paul Hayward had no problem with Klopp rotating his side heavily for the fixture:

It was the Reds' 10th game since December 2, a run which included fixtures against Napoli, Manchester United, Arsenal and Manchester City.

Liverpool also have a number of enforced absences. On top of the illnesses that affected the squad, Lovren's injury has now left them with just one fit senior centre-back in Virgil van Dijk, as Joe Gomez and Joel Matip remain sidelined with a broken leg and fractured collarbone, respectively.

Per Goal's Dom Farrell, Klopp said the former is "getting better, it's getting better, but he is not yet involved."

On Matip, he added:

"Joel is maybe a bit closer, I'm not sure, but hopefully he moves completely normal. We have to see how the bone healing is, that's always how it is when something [has] broken, but from his movements it looks nearly normal.

"But there are still a few days to go until we can have them in team training, until [Joel] is ready for contact, which for a centre-half is pretty important. Until then we will make all the fitness work."

Given Liverpool's fitness issues, it could be a blessing in disguise that they're now only battling on two fronts for the remainder of the campaign.

They only have three more matches in January, while title rivals City—who remain in both the FA Cup and the Carabao Cup—have six.

The lighter load will afford Liverpool more time to rest players to keep them fresh and means those out injured will miss fewer games.