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Jurgen Klopp insists he has no regrets about leaving Daniel Sturridge out of Liverpool’s Europa League semi-final with Villarreal as he vowed: “I’ll always do what’s best for the team.”

The Reds boss has been criticised for not playing the England striker in Thursday night’s 1-0 first-leg defeat at El Madrigal.

Sturridge had scored in Liverpool’s previous three matches but was left on the bench throughout as Klopp asked Roberto Firmino to lead the line with Christian Benteke brought on in the closing stages.

Klopp believes Firmino gave the Reds the “stability” and “balance” they needed to contain the Spanish outfit prior to Adrian Lopez’s stoppage-time winner.

“It is about balance absolutely always,” Klopp said. “I think I said a few times that I always think more about the strengths of a player than the weaknesses.

“I did not think about one weakness. It was because we had to find a line-up which knows how to work together with no training because we had no time to train and how to defend against a side like this.

“After the game I was asked if Villarreal was pleased to play for a 0-0 draw and if it was only because of our performance. If somebody has time to watch a few more Villarreal games they will see they usually play completely different, they are usually much more dominant.

“You cannot be fourth in the Spanish League and nearly sure of Champions League qualification without being a real good side and playing football. It is not only about counter-attack or things like this.

“Nobody could see this really, only in a few parts of the game. We had to defend this. It is not about thinking only what we can create, what we can do.

“It is about finding a stability. With decisions like this it is always two questions: was it the right decision to choose this line-up? With a 1-0 defeat you cannot be sure it was 100% right.

“The next question is: would I do it again? Yes. Then it is finished. Then I don’t have to think about it again.

“At the end we can all think about what could have happened, Daniel from the beginning or changing it at half-time when we had to bring Phil (Coutinho) off.

“We could have put Roberto on the wing and put Daniel as a striker. I don’t know and so it is not too important. That is my life – making decisions and in the end accepting the result.

“With Daniel in particular it is not about how it is always, it was a decision for this line-up. That is very important. It was not against Daniel.”

It was the third successive European game where Sturridge has failed to make the starting line up. Missing out against Villarreal clearly hurt the 26-year-old, who has been in outstanding form in recent weeks after putting his injury nightmare behind him.

With Divock Origi sidelined by ankle ligament damage, the stage looked set for Sturridge to lead the charge in Spain. Instead he’s now likely to feature in Sunday’s Premier League clash at Swansea City as part of what will be a shadow Liverpool side.

(Image: 2016 Liverpool FC)

Klopp insists there is no pecking order with his strikers and Sturridge will have to accept the manager’s ‘horses for courses’ approach.

“Daniel came back from injury and now he is fit for the longest period since he came from Chelsea. That’s very important,” he said.

“The Premier League, the Europa League, everything is too intense. The mentality of Daniel is really good, very confident, because he has all these qualities and he knows about these qualities.

“My job is not to do what you the media want, what the player wants, it is to try to help the player and help the team in this moment.

“It was the first game where he could have started and we decided from each point of view, physical status and shape, for another line up.

“It is not about Divock Origi, he came in the moment and found new stability in his game and his performance. If I then bring Daniel in every game then you ask me: ‘what about Divock Origi? And it worked really well with Roberto Firmino at Manchester City, he was the best player....’

“That is not what I should think about and I don’t. I always try to do my best and because I am not perfect maybe it sometimes does not work. But next time I will try it again.”

Klopp will make changes for Swansea

Klopp will field a youthful line up at the Liberty Stadium having hit out at Sunday’s noon kick-off time - just 59 hours after Liverpool landed back at John Lennon Airport.

The game was originally scheduled to be shown by BT Sport at 12.45pm on Saturday but had to be moved following Liverpool’s progress in Europe. With Sky showing games at both 2.05pm and 4.30pm on Sunday, BT had no option but to take the noon slot.

Klopp has vowed to challenge such decisions in future. Clubs are at the mercy of the TV companies when it comes to the live broadcasts but they are given the opportunity to raise objections if they have concerns. Clubs rarely do kick up a fuss because they pocket an extra £1.2million for every game shown live on either Sky or BT.

“How I know this club, nobody would make a decision like this without asking me,” Klopp said.

“I don’t have to be involved with which colour pens we have but if we have the chance to discuss the starting time in a football game....

“We usually would have played on Saturday I think but then one and a half or two weeks ago there would have been a decision of 12 o’clock.

“For me it was a little surprise. Now it’s not something we can change but in the future hopefully if we have similar problems then I will be involved if we have a say.”