Jurgen Klopp sprang a big surprise before Liverpool’s Premier League clash against Arsenal at Anfield on Sunday by dropping the team’s first-choice goalkeeper Simon Mignolet.The Belgian conceded two goals against Hoffenheim in midweek and then found himself ‘rested’ for the club’s biggest match of the season so far.Instead, Klopp handed a start to the club’s German ‘keeper Loris Karius, a decision described by former Red Jamie Carragher as “bizarre” before the match.Although Karius kept a clean sheet in Liverpool’s impressive 4-0 win over the Gunners, he failed to convince in between the sticks.On several occasions, he was closed down by Arsenal’s forwards and could easily have cost his team a goal.

Klopp explains why he dropped Mignolet

Klopp insisted that Mignolet remains his ‘clear number one’ and will be back to face Manchester City after the international break.

Explaining his decision to rest Mignolet, who reportedly plans to have talks with his manager after being dropped, Klopp was quoted by the Mirror as saying: “Intensity for a goalkeeper is different, it’s not a physical intensity. It’s a mental intensity.

“We created a situation before the season that we said we wanted to have three really strong goalkeepers, that’s our situation now.

“That means you cannot deal with it like you would do when there is a clear number three, a clear number two. Yes Simon is a clear number one but the others are not clear number twos and threes. They are really strong goalkeepers so in this moment Simon did outstandingly good so far, he won the race in the pre-season, he’s always there, he’s a machine. I hope solid is not a negative word, he’s always there, he’s really, really reliable.

“The others had a bit of problems with injuries and things like this, and he won the race.”

The charismatic German coach added: “I told Si yesterday and he didn’t give me a hug and say ‘that’s exactly what I thought we should do’ but anyway I wanted to do it, I wanted to give him this rest.”

Gary Lineker's reaction on Twitter goes viral

Given the way the match panned out, though, with Arsenal dominating from start to finish, would it really have made that big a difference - especially before an international break - if Mignolet had played the full 90 minutes against Arsene Wenger’s side?

Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker certainly doesn’t think so.

His Twitter reaction to Klopp ‘resting’ Mignolet has gone viral, racking up over three-and-a-half-thousand retweets and 12,000 ‘likes’.

“Great decision by Klopp to rest Mignolet,” he wrote. “This game would have exhausted him.”

Lovely stuff.

Reaction to Lineker's tweet

Here’s how Twitter reacted to Lineker’s tweet…