Why Liverpool Boss Klopp Substituted Van Dijk At Halftime In 3-1 Loss To Brentford

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has revealed why he substituted Virgil Van Dijk in his side's 3-1 loss to Brentford.

Van Dijk was removed at the halftime break in Liverpool's Premier League clash against Brentford. The Reds suffered their fifth loss of the season at Gtech Community Stadium on Monday. The loss meant Liverpool missed the chance to close in on the league table's top four.

In the first half, an own goal from Ibrahima Konate put the hosts 1-0 up, while Liverpool also escaped conceding two goals from set-pieces as they were ruled offside following VAR reviews. However, the touring side immediately fell 2-0 down after a mistake from Harvey Elliot allowed Brentford midfielder Mathias Jensen to set up Yoane Wissa's goal.

While Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain reduced the deficit with his 50th-minute strike, a late error from Konate let Brentford's 23-year-old forward Bryan Mbeumo seal the win for the home side by netting the third goal.

Klopp made a triple change at the halftime break, including removing Van Dijk and getting on Joel Matip instead.

Klopp later said he subbed off Van Dijk as a precautionary measure.

"Virgil felt a little bit of the muscle but said he is fine, and he's a very good judge of these kind of things. But I didn't want to take any risk – the physios looked quite happy when I said we don't take risks. But I think it is not an injury, he just felt the intensity," Klopp told reporters after the match.

Apart from Van Dijk, Klopp also removed Elliot and left-back Kostas Tsimikas, bringing in Naby Keita and Andrew Robertson.

"Yeah, the other two things were tactical. We had obviously had the opportunities. We could bring Naby, who I think played a really good game, and Robbo – and Robbo with the first action after halftime was exactly what we needed. We needed that speed in behind and so that was the reason for these two changes," added Klopp.

After a poor start to the Premier League campaign, Klopp and Co. retained some momentum by winning four straight matches before losing to Brentford on Monday. The Anfield side has 28 points from 17 games and are placed sixth in the league table. They are four points behind the top four and 15 points behind table-toppers Arsenal.

Liverpool's next fixture is their FA Cup third-round meeting against Wolves at Anfield on Saturday. Following this, the Reds will take on Brighton in the Premier League on Jan. 14.