Klopp got it ‘spectacularly wrong’ against Villarreal by leaving out someone who played 11 mins

Jurgen Klopp made a cataclysmic mistake by benching Jordan Henderson, which he remedied by bringing him on for the final 11 minutes at 3-2 up.

Beginning of the Hend

He adds that ‘mistakes were made, but they were corrected in a brilliant tactical masterclass from Klopp’, who introduced ‘the pace and incision of Luis Diaz’ in place of ‘the ineffective’ Diogo Jota, thus ‘bringing their play higher up the pitch, in the faces of the Villarreal players’.

But this grave Klopp error was neither in starting Jota nor benching Diaz. Not at all. Allow Maddock to explain what the German got ever so wrong:

‘He knew a tight ground produces a noise, and intimidating atmosphere beyond its size, where leadership is required…and that was missing in the absence of Jordan Henderson.’

Forget that post-match nonsense from Klopp himself about breaking the lines, “finding Naby and Trent in the half-spaces” and having a more “flexible” attack that wasn’t fixed in position; his most cataclysmic misjudgement was omitting Jordan Henderson and his ‘leadership’.

So to summarise: Klopp got it ‘spectacularly wrong’ by not starting Henderson, then ‘corrected’ this mistake not by bringing him on but by substituting Jota for Diaz at half-time. It must be why Henderson – the answer, the key to everything – came on to rescue Liverpool when they were only leading 5-2 on aggregate with 11 minutes of the tie remaining, with the atmosphere surely at its most ‘intimidating’.

Sweep take

Class hysteria

The bar for ‘class [insert three hand-clapping emojis]’ is already at the lowest point in recorded footballing history so this should be good…

‘Yet despite the disappointment on the night, the home side’s fans were keen to show their pride in their team and the