Georginio Wijnaldum was left out of Liverpool’s starting line-up in their first pre-season friendly amid recent speculation over his future.
The Dutch midfielder is out of contract next summer and yet to commit his long-term future to the Reds with reports Ronald Koeman is keen to take him to Barcelona.
Wijnaldum has remained focused on the Reds on their pre-season tour of Austria but was amongst the substitutes against Stuttgart in their first game since the end of the Premier League season.
Fabinho, Naby Keita and Curtis Jones were given the nod in midfield - but Jurgen Klopp offered a logical explanation for Wijnaldum’s omission before the game.
He was introduced at the break, taking over from Fabinho in the No.6 role and Klopp explained how he left Wijnaldum on the bench to ensure he had a direct replacement for the Brazilian in that role with Jordan Henderson still sidelined through injury.
Klopp told Liverpoolfc.com : "We will change completely in half-time.
"Gini on six in the second half makes sense because Hendo is not here and if something happens he should've played it at least once – because apart from Fabinho he's then the option for us. So that's the reason.
"Then with Gini and Millie in the second half is experience and leadership on the pitch for a pretty young side. But that's it pretty much.
"Apart from that we don't change now five million times in this moment. We train in the week, we play in the week, so we should just try to do what we do on as high a level as possible.
"It's strange but we are standing here in Austria and in one week at pretty much the same time we play for silverware. We have another seven days to make sure that we will have the mindset for that."
