Jurgen Klopp has explained the reasons behind the substitutions of three of his most prominent players in Tuesday's Champions League defeat to Atletico Madrid
Liverpool on Tuesday evening suffered an ineffectual display in the first-leg of their Champions League last-16 tie with Atletico Madrid.
Jurgen Klopp's men fell behind to Saul Niguez's goal in the 4th minute after a corner rebounded and dropped kindly to him, giving Alisson no time to react.
They enjoy plenty of possession throughout the match, but were unable to seriously test Jan Oblak in the home goal.
Klopp opted to take Sadio Mane off at half-time, with Mohamed Salah and Jordan Henderson also departing the action early, leaving Divock Origi, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and James Milner all being brought on from the bench.
"Obviously, the plan tonight was get Sadio out of the game with a yellow card," the German told his post-match press conference.
"I was afraid his opponent would go down now even if Sadio takes a deep breath or whatever and I didn't want to have that situation, so that's why we took him off.
"Mo was just a tactical change, that's all. We wanted to change a little bit and that's what we did.
"Hendo felt his hamstring, unfortunately. We have to wait. He was not too concerned but enough to go off obviously."
Liverpool will welcome Atletico back to Anfield for the second leg on March 11, with Klopp seeking to preserve his proud record of having never lost a two-legged tie when in charge of the Reds.