Steve Nichol Blasts Jurgen Klopp for Playing Loris Karius Against Spartak Moscow

Former Liverpool defender Steve Nichol has blasted Jurgen Klopp's decision to play Loris Karius ahead of Simon Mignolet against Spartak Moscow in the Champions League on Tuesday.

The Reds could only manage a 1-1 draw, despite dominating play, with Karius emerging as the main culprit after conceding a goal from a savable free-kick.

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Speaking on ESPN TV, Nichol seemed perplexed by Klopp's choice.

“Normally in Europe a point away from home is a solid result. But Liverpool utterly and completely dominated that game,

“Spartak had two shots and they scored with one, which [Karius] should have saved. Why he was playing I have no idea.”

“Liverpool’s biggest struggle is defensively – they’re not consistent. And how are you going to get consistent if you’re changing the goalkeeper, the fullbacks, and the centre-backs all the time?”

“So not only do you have players who are presently not capable of defending well but you’re mixing them up all the time. You’re never going to get any consistency.”

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Klopp, meanwhile, stopped short of blaming his keeper, citing poor luck as the reason for the result instead.

“We are not the luckiest team in world football but we did very well in creating chances against a defensively-oriented team.”

“The free-kick was not a foul, we won the ball clearly. It was a brilliant free-kick and we could have created more chances – that is the crazy thing. The only thing is to go through the group and that is still possible for us.“