Jurgen Klopp has backed Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's decision to field a weakened side against Leicester City, insisting "he would have done the same."
The Manchester United boss was forced to rest a number of his key first-team stars in their 2-1 defeat to the Foxes, with the Old Trafford side in the midst of a hectic run of four games in the space of eight days.
That decision was called into question by David Moyes before kick-off who was worried the wholesale changes would cause the Red Devils to drop points to West Ham's top four rivals.
The Scot hit out at league chiefs for putting Solskjear in that position, saying: "The Premier League should be answering these questions and tell us why this is the case.
"There was an awful lot of integrity needed to get the Premier League back up and running during the pandemic.
"Ole can do what he likes. It's his team and his club. But I don't know if there was a better way to sort the fixtures out. The Premier League have made that decision, I think Manchester United can always put out a strong team."
Solskjaer fired back at Moyes insisting he had no choice to protect his players.
He said: "I wish I could have said let's go full out in all the games but it's impossible... talking about integrity in the league and stuff, don't blame me when I have to make changes because I have to."
Unfortunately, Moyes' concerns came to fruition as Brendan Rodgers' side sealed a vital three points and have now bridged a six point gap between them and the Hammers in fourth spot.
But after the match, Solskjear reiterated that he had no other choice but to bench ten of his first-team regulars with their clash against Liverpool arriving just 48 hours later on Thursday night.
He said: "It can’t be like this again.
“You can’t play Thursday, Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday. It’s impossible.
“That’s the reason why we had to make these changes, because it’s just unheard of.
“I've got to say it again, if this game was tomorrow, no problem, and we had the next one on Saturday.
“But this is impossible for the players to perform at this level, Thursday night, Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday. Impossible.”
Now, ahead of their rearranged fixture with the Reds, Klopp has jumped to the defence of his dugout rival.
And the Kop chief, who had also voiced his concerns over the Premier League's decision at the weekend, admitted that if he was in his shoes, he would have done the exact same thing.
He added: "It was the line up I expected. They play Sunday-Tuesday-Thursday. That's a crime.
"It's not the fault of Ole and his players. Would I have done the same? Yes."
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