Crystal Palace 1-2 Liverpool: 5 talking points
Liverpool won at Selhurst Park in dramatic fashion running out 2-1 winners against a thoroughly rattled Crystal Palace side. Joe Ledley gave the eagles the lead right after half-time before Liverpool Vice Captain James Milner was sent off for a second bookable offense an hour into the game. Roberto Firmino scored from a terrible mistake from the Crystal Palace goalkeeper to level it up before a penalty was awarded to Liverpool in the 6th minute of stoppage time at the end of the game. Christian Benteke scored the penalty to hand Liverpool a vital three points.Let us have a look at the five talking points in the game:
#1 Klopp shocks everyone with selection
How many times out of 10 would someone expect Jurgen Klopp to bench fit and rested Phillipe Coutinho and Daniel Sturridge for a game against Crystal Palace away at Selhurst Park? The answer may be debatable but would hardly be above 1 or 2 times out of 10.
Jurgen Klopp pulled one over the travelling support when he did not start either of the devastating duo for the game after having rested them midweek as well for the high-octane clash at Anfield. Instead, the team that went out today was largely unchanged from the Manchester City game earlier in the week and saw only Alberto Moreno coming in for Nathaniel Clyne.
While many would say the selection was with an eye towards the high stakes Europa League tie against fierce rivals Manchester United in midweek, you have to wonder if Coutinho and Sturridge really needed one and a half weeks off overall while the likes of Can, Milner, Firmino and Henderson played their third game in a week. You would expect all of the latter mentioned players to start in the midweek Europa League tie too.
What is even more bizarre is Klopp turned to Christian Benteke over Daniel Sturridge when a man down and looking to turn the game around. Not that it didn’t help the cause, but you have to wonder what exactly is up with Sturridge. Is it another injury? There could be a totally different plausible explanation for everything and if so everyone would be all ears to the matter if only Herr Klopp would care to explain. Only, knowing him, he’d only flash a clever smile and call the curious cat out of us further.