Jurgen Klopp has made light of any injury fears for Jordan Henderson.
The Liverpool chief disclosed his choice to sub the skipper with Thiago Alcantara in the second half against Aston Villa was pre-arranged.
A youthful Reds side made light work on Villa on Friday to grab a noteworthy 4-1 success in a third-round FA Cup tie.
After Louie Barry counteracted Sadio Mane’s opener to level the scoreline before half-time, Liverpool reacted with three second-half goals. Mane, Georginio Wijnaldum, and Mo Salah all scored only five minutes past the hour-mark.
A critical factor for the turnaround was Thiago as the midfielder increased the rhythm of play and assumed a major job in Salah’s goal subsequent to supplanting a dull Henderson, who Klopp says has no injury troubles.
“Hendo and Thiago was clear before the game that we do it like this: 45, 45,”
said the German during his post-match conference on Friday.
“Absolutely no problem. And no, no reservations.
“We trust the authorities, we had our test results come back yesterday as well, everybody was negative. Then the FA did what they thought is right with the U23s, they got tested, we got their results this morning I think at 10 o’clock.
“We were on the car park at the airport. So, then everything is fine.”