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What's the story?
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has cited illness for the array of changes he made to the team during his side's defeat to Wolverhampton Wanderers in the FA Cup last night.
In case you didn't know...
The Premier League table-toppers crashed out of the FA Cup after suffering a 2-1 defeat at the hands of the Wolves on Monday.
Ruben Neves was the star for the newly-promoted Premier League side as he doubled his side's tally after Raul Jimenez netted an early opener.
Liverpool's sole goal came from Divock Origi as the Merseyside outfit saw a staggering nine changes being made to the starting eleven.
Besides Origi, Klopp gave starts to a number of youngsters including Curtis Jones and Rafael Camacho as well as players like Alberto Moreno, Naby Keita and Daniel Sturridge.
The heart of the matter
In an attempt to justify the big changes in the game, Klopp has stated that it was the flu that prompted him to rule out most regulars from the team.
Speaking to reporters, the manager said (via Goal), "After the Man City game, we had immediately a few players who were ill, who showed [a] soar throat and what you can have in this period of the year. So they were not even in after the City game."
"Pretty much all the players who were not here today had flu problems - apart from Ali [Alisson]. And so we had late changes. Like yesterday Adam [Lallana] was in our plans, Hendo [Jordan Henderson] was in our plans and Dejan was not in our plans, he should only have been on the bench. It happens, what happened. That doesn't help a lot and we have to change again."
"We wanted to control the game because we were completely new, especially defensively completely new, so it makes sense to keep the ball."
"We are not here to be the new world record holder for the world's youngest team. It's nice, the boys train with us, the boys are around - that is why they train with us because we think they're good enough."
What's next?
Liverpool are set to shift their focus to the Premier League and will hope to extend their four-point lead at the top of the table when they face Brighton this Saturday.
