LONDON • Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has said he took off experienced midfielder James Milner in the second half of their 3-1 win at West Ham due to his concern about more injuries.

Klopp and Milner were involved in a minor tiff on the touchline when Klopp sent on Curtis Jones, but a minute later, they were all smiles as the midfielder was involved in the build-up to Mohamed Salah's opening goal.

It was easy to understand the German's concern given the amount of injuries to key players this season - namely in defence with Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez long-term absentees and Joel Matip and Fabinho also out.

Sadio Mane also missed Sunday's game, as did Diogo Jota and Naby Keita, while Roberto Firmino was not risked from the start.

Klopp said: "My mood is constantly concerned about injuries... and we try to save everybody, like it was with Milly as well. But as far as I know in the moment, today nothing happened injury-wise.

"We played a good game and got three points, which was absolutely great."

Klopp explained that he brought off Milner as a precaution because he was running too much.

"So the thing is, in half-time we changed the formation, offensive formation, so the set-up, Milly was now slightly deeper," he said.

"We told Milly, because he had this hamstring (that) stiffened up slightly, so we told him, 'Be controlled, more passing than running with the ball'."

The Reds boss said he was "really, really worried" when he saw Milner's lengthy sprint, adding: "Then he came off and said, 'You told me I had to play deeper, now I run less and now you take me off.' Then he left and came back and said, 'Yeah, by the way, good point, good decision!'"

Liverpool's win, their second of the week in London, puts them into third place, four points behind leaders Manchester City (44) who they host on Sunday. But Salah urged his teammates to first focus on earning a victory over Brighton at Anfield on Wednesday.

"If you want to win the league, you have to win every game," said Salah, who scored twice having not registered in the league since mid-December.

"This year, City were struggling in the beginning and now, we were struggling three or four games ago.

"So, we just need to carry on and keep winning."

He has now become the first Liverpool player to score at least 20 goals in four straight seasons with the Reds since club great Ian Rush - a statistic that was not lost on Klopp.

"I'm not surprised. I work on a daily basis together with him and he'll never stop having a massive desire for scoring goals," the German said of the Egypt forward bringing his tally to 21 strikes in all competitions this term.

Multiple media reports have also said that Klopp will bring in Preston's Ben Davies, who is out of contract this summer, on deadline day on a £2 million (S$3.7 million) deal to ease their shortage at the back.

But he gave little away when asked about the impending signing, instead playing the question off as a joke by referring to "Tottenham's Ben Davies".

REUTERS