Jurgen Klopp explains Ibrahima Konate substitution as Liverpool injury update given

Jurgen Klopp revealed that it made sense for Liverpool to bring off Ibrahima Konate in their Europa League victory against LASK.

The Reds earned a 4-0 win to move top Group E and move into the knockout stage of the competition. Cody Gakpo fired a double while Luis Diaz and Mo Salah were on target.

Konate made his first appearance since the 1-1 draw against Luton Town in the Premier League on 5 November. The centre-back had a hamstring injury that ruled him out of France duty during the international break while he was an unused substitute in last weekend's 1-1 draw at Manchester City.

Konate came off in the 56th minute in the LASK encounter, although Klopp revealed that was planned. The Liverpool manager said: "We took him off was a medical decision. No risks, stuff like this, give him minutes but not too long."

Meanwhile, Klopp confirmed that Liverpool suffered no new injuries against LASK. On the performance, he said: "Two top results for us tonight in the group. It was clear, with the defeat at Toulouse we made it a bit more tricky, but because of our result and their result [tonight] we are now top of the table and that will not change.

"That's good, very important in the busy, busy, busy schedule we have from now on. [There were] a lot of positives in the game, a lot of good football. The thing I didn't like too much, and told the boys at half-time, [was] this game should have been put to bed already at half-time. A third, fourth, fifth goal... you cannot play better, you cannot set it up better, [but] you can finish it better obviously, but we didn't.

"So, what was it? Fifty-something [minutes] when we scored the third? That's then very helpful as well. We made changes and lost a bit of rhythm. Then you see immediately, if you don’t play, you will not stay in charge of the game. If you lose balls in the wrong moment, LASK was there, had chances, Caoimhin worked for his clean sheet, which he desperately wanted, and that's good. Scored a fourth goal in the last minute or whatever, so result top, performance really good [and] nobody got injured. All good."