Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool FC manager, has explained his decision to leave out Xherdan Shaqiri for their trip to Red Star Belgrade (aka Crvena Zvezda). Klopp has made it very clear that his team’s focus was purely on the football game and stated that he opted not to take the ‘attacker’ to Belgrade for their UEFA Champions League clash on Tuesday against Crvena Zvezda (CRV).
Klopp has also confirmed that Xherdan Shaqiri had accepted his manager’s decision. The Liverpool manager opined that LFC football fans will understand better the reason behind not bringing the player with the team for this Tuesday-night game.
“I took a lot of times in my life a decision about a playing squad, a travel squad, and so far the player’s always accepted it. We come here as a football team and we represent one of the biggest football clubs in the world. That’s why we’re here, to play football. We want to focus on that, that’s all,” Klopp said at a press conference.
“And because of the situation, people here all know better how the situation is, we decided not to bring Shaq here. And I said it, he’s our player, he will play a lot of games for us but not on Tuesday [Nov 06], that’s all,” he continued.
Liverpool thrashed Red Star Belgrade by a margin of 4-0 on 25th October to go on to top the Group C points table heading into this clash on Tuesday. Liverpool players Roberto Firmino (20′), Mohamed Salah (45′ & 51′) and Sadio Mane (80′) all scored goals in the 4-0 victory against Red Star Belgrade.
Liverpool, Napoli, Paris Saint-Germain and Crvena Zvezda are the teams in the Group C of the the 2018-19 UCL. Liverpool tops the Group C currently with 6 points while Napoli is at second position with 5 points. Saint-Germain and Crvena Zvezda are at the next two positions with 4 points and a point respectively.
Keep reading ReadScoops.com for similar updates on the 2018/19 Champions League.
