Klopp's wry smile seemed to be written on Liverpool's 2-0 defeat to Everton, the first defeat at Goodison Park since he took charge of the Reds, and he lost not only three points, but also the dream of a Premier League title as a farewell gift.
With four games to go, Klopp would rather send more rookies on the field than to continue to let Salah mess up, Ibrahim Konate suffer, and Endo with his unrecovered body, and the truth is that the Reds' best time this season was when the camp was full of injuries and a few rookies were fighting.
If you just look at the stats, Salah wasn't bad, with seven shots, two on target and one goal-creating pass, but if you watch the game, you won't understand why he can play the full game. The usual Salah is very dangerous on the left side, quickly breaking in, dribbling forward, and holding the ball with his back, all proficient, but in recent games, Salah can't run, can't control, and the shot is either weak or weak, or shoots to the stands, and even a simple pass can be lost, and he has lost possession 7 times in this game. Roy Keane has criticised Haaland as a striker in League Two and if Salah were to be judged by that standard, he could be relegated to amateur league level.
Sympathetic to understand why Klopp will let Salah play the whole game this time, because Diogo Jota kicked Fulham in the last game and was injured, and another in-form striker Cody Gakpo was absent because his girlfriend was preparing to give birth to their first child, but Salah's performance was lackluster, and the most impressive kick of the game was probably a "volley" before the end of the game, but the power and angle were not good, allowing Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford to easily catch it.
Salah's forward line has been frequent, Liverpool's defense is full of holes, especially the central defender Konate is a disastrous performance, Liverpool conceded the first goal, it was he who kicked out indiscriminately, so that McAllister was about to clear, but the ball fell to the feet of the opponent's Jarrad Branthwaite, the Everton central defender also "lived up to the trust" and sent the ball into the goal. The French centre-back has been in flux since his return in April, and was completely unable to cope with the opponent's tall centre-forward Gianluca Scamacca in the Europa League.
Liverpool's forward line and defence are not good, in fact, even the midfield line has collapsed. Japanese midfielder Endo Hang mentioned in an earlier interview that Klopp's tactics require the "No. 6 position", which is simply an impossible task, because the coverage is too wide. However, Endo did not admit defeat and worked hard to improve himself, performing very well earlier and was also an important part of the Reds' Carabao Cup victory, and his limping after the game showed that he had given it his all.
However, this kind of overload is actually difficult to maintain for a long time, Endo Airlines obviously because of the previous period of playing too often, the recent can be described as a big regression, this game came off the bench on the first touch of the ball to lose control, and was almost stolen by Everton, breaking the goal, and then there were many mistakes, in just 28 minutes, there were 5 times lost possession. In fact, Endo's situation is very similar to that of the other two midfielders, Curtis Jones and Dominic Szobosloy, who have not been able to return to their best form after returning from injury.
Although Liverpool is still only three points behind Arsenal at the top of the table in the final stage of the title race, the Reds are not at the same level in terms of the team's mental outlook and determination to win. It's over, if there is no accident, in fact, the defeat to Crystal Palace at home is over, and the defeat of this game can only be closed.