Klopp: I Could See Sturridge was Unhappy with Being Substituted "Because I'm Not Blind"

Body language experts have had their hands full in recent weeks with Liverpool FC. First there was the analyzing of Jürgen Klopp's apparent dissatisfaction with Christian Benteke's performance against Southampton two weeks ago, and now their efforts are turned towards an allegedly unhappy Daniel Sturridge who was subbed after seventy minutes on Saturday against Tottenham.

"I think that's completely normal, especially with the quality of Daniel Sturridge," Klopp explained on his striker's lack of joy over leaving the pitch mid-game. "He has to think ‘leave me on the pitch and I can decide the game'.  "That's true, but in this moment we need other help in the game. We needed ways behind the line. We needed Divock [Origi]'s physical strength so I changed.

"I could have changed Adam Lallana and gone with two strikers. But in my opinion, and only my opinion counts, it didn't make sense so that's it.  I saw that he was not happy because I'm not blind. But that's not a problem because if he came off and (celebrated) something would be really wrong."

Sturridge is literally never thrilled to be substituted no matter what the reason, so the reading of tea leaves over his lack of physical enthusiasm seems to be a highly manufactured bit of drama. It's expected that a key player should want to play all the minutes, and it's an approach to the game Klopp is perfectly fine with.

"You cannot play football with this confidence when you are like we are," Klopp said. "You have to think ‘yes, I'm the best'. I like this - as long as he doesn't come off the pitch and do something really strange like kicking me from behind."