Jurgen Klopp has explained Virgil van Dijk sustained a hamstring injury as Liverpool suffered a demoralising 3-1 defeat at Brentford on Monday evening.
Van Dijk was one of three Reds players to make way at half-time after they found themselves two goals down against the Bees, who had seen two further goals chalked off for offside. The Dutchman was replaced by Joel Matip, as Kostas Tsimikas and Harvey Elliott were also withdrawn as Andy Robertson and Naby Keita came on.
An own goal from Van Dijk’s central defensive partner Ibrahima Konate had opened the scoring for the hosts before Yoane Wissa had the ball in the net that was correctly ruled out for offside. Wissa then had another goal disallowed for the hosts before his header minutes later crept over the line despite Alisson Becker’s best efforts.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s headed effort halved the deficit five minutes after the break, after Darwin Nunez’s strike was disallowed for being offside, but despite a significantly better second half performance from Klopp’s side, they were condemned to defeat by Bryan Mbuemo restoring Brentford’s two-goal advantage five minutes before full-time after outmuscling Konate.
Klopp explained to beIN Sports after the match when asked of Van Dijk’s situation: “Virgil felt the hamstring a little bit. He said he is fine, but when I said we don’t take any risks, the physios were quite happy with that.
“I think it is nothing serious, but that’s why we changed him. In the other two positions, we wanted to have fresh legs and different skillsets.”
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It was a result which ended Liverpool ’s four-game winning run in the Premier League but it continued the side’s concerning run of being left open and vulnerable defensively - as they were condemned to their fifth Premier League defeat of the campaign.
"It could have been anyone, it could have been five," Jamie Carragher said on commentary after the substitutions were made. "He has to make changes at half time, it shows how disappointed he is.
"It’s interesting with the Virgil van Dijk one, whether that’s an injury or if he had to make the change because he has really struggled. Brentford have got joy in behind, he had to make changes because that was an unacceptable 45 minutes from Liverpool."
