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Football

06th Mar 2018

Liverpool fans divided over Jurgen Klopp’s starting XI for second leg clash

Liverpool won the first leg 5-0

Darragh Murphy

You can’t win.

Jurgen Klopp was always going to view Tuesday night’s Champions League second leg clash with Porto as the perfect opportunity to rest some players.

Three weeks after the first leg, when the Reds claimed a comprehensive 5-0 away victory, Klopp has named a balanced XI which features some rotation but some regular first-teamers.

Sadio Mane netted a hat-trick on Valentine’s Day and he’s feeling the love again tonight as he starts in an attacking unit which also includes Roberto Firmino but Adam Lallana, who has only just returned from injury, comes into the starting line-up in place of the free-scoring Mohamed Salah.

“We were very effective that night, and strong – maybe surprisingly strong. Porto is a fantastic football team and Portuguese football is really strong,” Klopp said.

“It was 5-0, that is how it is, but we scored from each chance we had, pretty much, and Porto didn’t. It doesn’t say anything about the level between the different leagues.”

With a crunch Premier League clash against arch-rivals Manchester United on Saturday, some supporters were delighted to see vital players like Salah, Virgil Van Dijk, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Andrew Robertson given a break.

While others claimed there wasn’t enough rotation.

And a minority were, for some reason, worried about the lack of Liverpool’s best players despite the fact that they kick off with a five-goal head start.

You can’t please everybody.