Jurgen Klopp has admitted it was a deliberate decision to not play Luis Diaz against Burnley.
The £49m signing from FC Porto impressed when making his first Liverpool start in midweek in the Reds’ 2-0 victory over Leicester City, however, he was benched along with Diogo Jota, who was suffering with a dead leg, against the Clarets.
Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane started in the duo’s place, following their involvement in last weekend’s Africa Cup of Nations final, with the latter a late inclusion in the starting XI due to Jota’s injury.
VERDICT: Liverpool send title message to City as four squad absences speak volumes
PLAYER RATINGS: Alisson and Keita good but two stars struggle against Burnley
ANALYSIS: Liverpool squad face £49m truth as contract clock ticks for Klopp originals
The Portuguese replaced his fellow forward midway through the second half as Diaz was left unused on the bench.
And Klopp praised Mane’s performance following Liverpool’s 1-0 victory over Burnley, when explaining his surprise decision to start the Senegalese, as well why he left the Colombian on the bench.
“Sadio played really, really well,” the German told reporters. “As I said before, it wasn’t the plan to start the game, just because of how intense everything was.
“But Diogo had a dead leg and couldn’t train [on Saturday] so we started with Sadio.
*Give us your LFC player ratings:
“Luis, he adapted really well but this is a completely different game. A real, ‘Welcome to the Premier League’.
“We didn’t want to try it if we didn’t need it, so that’s why we started like we started and Sadio did really well.
“He worked incredibly hard and that’s exactly what we expect.”
