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Jurgen Klopp has explained his decision to substitute Dejan Lovren that prompted Liverpool's second-half capitulation at Southampton.

The Reds were leading 2-0 when Lovren was replaced at half-time by Martin Skrtel.

Within minutes Skrtel had conceded a penalty. And while Simon Mignolet saved Saido Mane's spot kick, the Saints substitute later scored twice as Liverpool lost 3-2.

Lovren had been fortunate not to concede a penalty for a push on Shane Long and was later booked for a foul on the same player.

And when asked why he replaced Lovren, the Reds boss said: “His yellow card.

“I thought at the end of the first half it looked like the ref was not completely any more free of the emotion in the stadium. Maybe this situation was not okay.

“Okay, maybe it was a penalty – I don’t know. I thought we had to change this because it was clear that they will play a lot of long balls to Pelle and it’s not easy for a centre-half to challenge for these without a yellow card, especially when the ref changed a bit the mood.

“It was not too good today for us today, obviously.”

Klopp also questioned why Joe Allen's first-half strike was disallowed.

The Welshman thought he had put Liverpool 3-0 ahead until the officials declared Mamadou Sakho had been standing in an offisde position.

“Was he in front of the goalkeeper?” enquired Klopp. “Do you think if Sakho wasn’t there he could have saved the ball? Write this maybe.

“If he was not offside we would have been 3-0 ahead and it would have been a different situation.

“But the ref decided it and I don’t know why and when. He let us celebrate for what felt like five minutes and then took it back.”