Rebecca Lowe admitted that she was stunned upon seeing the Liverpool starting XI prior to the 3-1 win over Fulham on Sunday.
Jurgen Klopp made six changes from the side which won in vain against Atalanta last Thursday, with the likes of Mo Salah, Darwin Nunez, Dominik Szoboszlai and Alexis Mac Allister all beginning from the substitutes’ bench at Craven Cottage.
Speaking on her show ‘The Lowdown’ on NBC Sports, the presenter said: “It’s one of those situations where it’s my job to question everything, and when it came out, we were like, ‘ooh, okay’.
“Szoboszlai on the bench, Mac Allister on the bench? Nunez on the bench, he’s been a bit rubbish recently. Salah on the bench, also not been great recently but that’s a lot of big names to leave on the bench.
“My concern immediately when that comes out is, ‘massive risk, massive gamble’, which it was. It still was even though they won. It was still a big, big gamble because could you have imagined if they lost that game?”
However, Lowe did acknowledge that the much-changed Liverpool line-up ‘worked an absolute treat’ and noted how the minimal involvement of the aforementioned quartet could keep them fresh for the derby on Wednesday night.
While Klopp’s starting XI might have raised a few eyebrows prior to kick-off, the Reds’ dip in form made the changes easier to justify, as did the fact that the Fulham game was the second of four crucial away matches in just 10 days.
Also, considering how much the injury crisis earlier this year minimised our selection pool, it’s only right that the manager now utilises the depth of an almost fully fit squad now that so many key players are fit again.
The end result, and the most convincing performance in several weeks, very much vindicated Klopp’s bold team decisions yesterday.
You can view Lowe’s comments in full below, via NBC Sports on YouTube:
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