Jurgen Klopp explained that Mohamed Salah's "unbelievable workload" was behind the decision to substitute him as Liverpool lost 3-2 at Arsenal.
The Egypt winger endured a frustrating afternoon at the Emirates as the Reds slumped to their second Premier League defeat of the campaign and was replaced for Fabinho with a little over 20 minutes left in north London.
Klopp said he was concerned with overworking his No.11 who came off around five minutes before Bukayo Saka scored the winning goal from the penalty spot to take Mikel Arteta's men back to the top of the table.
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"It's a good question!" Klopp said. "I thought we had to defend again on a high level and we tried to put Hendo (Jordan Henderson) on that side. Mo had an unbelievable workload and put in a real shift and that sometimes is intense, so that is why we changed it. We still wanted to win, even though we took a striker off."
The defeat leaves them 14 points behind early pace-setters Arsenal and 13 adrift of Manchester City in second and Klopp was asked if he feels his side's title aspirations are already over just eight games into the campaign.
He added: "We are not in the title race! Imagine I would sit here and say: 'we're nearly there, just wait'. Look, we saw a lot of things and we have problems at the moment but we caused the leader of the table massive problems today I think. Even in a really bad situation with us and early changes, we caused them real problems, so that is the truth as well.
"We have to continue now and of course in a situation like ours playing Arsenal then Rangers and Manchester City - are they the perfect opponent for finding confidence back now? I don't think so but we will go out there and fight. That is what we have to do and that is what we will do.
"We are not here to be in the situation and think about last year 'we were nearly there' not at all. But it's always like this. You ask the questions but I cannot change them a lot. If we're winning I can talk about he's great, he's great, what a result. When you are losing the conversation is the same. I cannot change that.
"We work on solutions and today I saw some of them but what you build with your hand you knock down with your backside and that is what we did today. That makes it even more difficult but we will keep going."
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