Jurgen Klopp reveals reasons for Naby Keita and Trent Alexander-Arnold substitutions during Liverpool draw

Jurgen Klopp has explained the reason for substituting Naby Keita and Trent Alexander-Arnold during the forgettable stalemate at Crystal Palace.

Keita was replaced by Harvey Elliott at half-time of the goalless Premier League draw at Crystal Palace on Saturday night having earlier picked up a booking.

Alexander-Arnold, meanwhile, lasted until 19 minutes from time having endured a disappointing evening.

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But Klopp has dismissed suggestions the right-back is struggling for self-belief and cited fatigue as a factor behind his substitution.

“Trent plays all the games for us and before the game we thought whether it would be one game too much for him, but he started,” said the Liverpool boss. “The reason (to substitute him) was purely because of that.”

Asked if it the right-back was suffering a lack of confidence, Klopp responded: “No. In the few games we won he was one of our much, much, much, much better players.

“Trent Alexander-Arnold, when he is not performing, everybody is talking about it. When he is performing nobody speaks about it apart from when he’s involved in goals. He set up super goals in the last two league games.

“He’s okay. It’s just the amount of games, we took him off and he will have a day longer to rest and he will be fine again.”

Of Keita, Klopp added: “Naby had an early yellow card and then two fouls, not really bad fouls, but situations that took him out of the game and he couldn’t contact players any more. That was the reason (he went off).”

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