Jurgen Klopp has pinpointed Xherdan Shaqiri’s qualities while explaining his decision to hand the attacker a Liverpool start against Manchester United. Shaqiri was handed his first Premier League start in 13 months on Sunday and applied himself superbly, demonstrating his passing ability and movement while playing very effectively in tight spaces from midfield alongside Thiago Alcantara. And Klopp outlined how pleased he was with the Swiss international’s performance before promising that there would be more to come from his exciting new partnership with Thiago.
Jurgen Klopp said “They are all unique, Shaq’s big strengths are obviously passing, little movements, creativity and vision. He has a really good last pass and he’s a good connector. A lot of stuff is really good. That’s why he’s now in the line-up. We had two players on the pitch [against United] who haven’t played a lot of games in recent weeks like with Thiago and Shaqiri and both did really well but of course there is a lot more to come. That’s because of rhythm – we can’t just ask for it and see it again. You have to gain rhythm by playing games and that’s a little bit of a problem but they did really well and that helped us a lot. I’m really happy about that. Nobody is tired and nobody is fatigued, It plays no role and we are as fresh as possible.”
