da bwin： The Reds have an undeniably hectic schedule, but a foolish team selection against Sparta Prague contributed to Sunday's loss at Old Trafford

da realbet： Jurgen Klopp was visibly stunned as he stood on the touchline at a raucous Old Trafford. His Liverpool side had lost a game that they should have won – twice: first in normal time; and then again in extra time.

It was an utterly avoidable defeat against a struggling side. After a sluggish start that Manchester United exploited, Liverpool had recovered wonderfully well to turn their FA Cup quarter-final tie on its head with two quick goals before the break.

They had numerous chances to kill the game during a second half that they dominated until Antony's 87th-minute equaliser. From that moment on, Liverpool looked exhausted – unsurprisingly. Competing on four fronts was always going to take its toll on an injury-hit squad – which is why Klopp got annoyed when asked during a post-match interview why his side had lacked "intensity" in extra time. Klopp felt the answer was obvious: too many matches.

"Bit of a dumb question, I have to say… We have played I don't know how many games recently. I don't know how many games United exactly have played. That's sport," he said before taking another unnecessary and undignified shot at his interviewer. "Really disappointed about that question but you obviously thought it was good."

When the journalist asked a follow-up about "too many games", Klopp decided he'd had enough and stormed off in a huff. "You're obviously not in great shape," he sniped, "and I have no nerves for you."

Unacceptable reaction

For many, this was classic Klopp: all smiles after victories but nothing but bitter when games don't go his team's way.

He certainly doesn't do himself any favours with such pathetic displays of petulance, and while a degree of frustration was understandable in the context of the game, his reaction to a rather innocuous line of questioning was utterly unacceptable. Particularly when one considers that Klopp had contributed to Liverpool's lacklustre performance in extra-time.

AdvertisementGetty Liverpool's injury issues

Have the Reds been desperately unlucky with injuries this season? Absolutely, and Klopp deserves enormous credit for somehow keeping his team in Premier League title contention while reaching the last eight of both the FA Cup and the Europa League, after winning the Carabao Cup with kids.

Make no mistake about it: this season has been a stunning demonstration of Klopp's incredible coaching skills and amazing man-management. However, it was a little hard to listen to Klopp complaining about the effects of too many games at Old Trafford when he had fielded a ridiculously strong side against Sparta Prague just three days earlier.

Getty Images'They play all the time…'

Klopp said that he didn't know which players to replace during extra-time because so many of his key players were shattered. "We could have [taken off] Macca (Alexis Mac Allister)definitely, Wataru [Endo] definitely, Darwin [Nunez] definitely, Lucho [Diaz] we did then, Joey [Gomez]," he admitted to reporters afterwards. "They play all the time, the boys, and today, this extra-time."

And there's the rub: those players have been playing all the time – and Klopp is partly responsible in that regard.

GettyInsane Sparta selection

With Liverpool 5-1 up from the first leg in Prague, there was absolutely no way Endo, Nunez and Gomez should have been anywhere near the starting line-up against Sparta – and the same goes for Dominik Szoboszlai, Mohamed Salah and Andy Robertson, too.

All of those players bar Gomez have recently recovered from injuries of varying degrees of severity in recent weeks, so why on earth were they utilised in the second leg of a tie that was already over?

Salah, Szoboszlai and Robertson ended up playing 90 minutes against Sparta – not one of them made it past the 77th minute at Old Trafford. Gomez was also replaced before the midway point of extra-time.

As for Nunez, he stayed on right until the end, but should have been hooked long before his loose pass – an undoubted by-product of the fatigue that Klopp acknowledged – allowed United to level the game through Marcus Rashford.