Jürgen Klopp has explained that he saw no need to make wholesale changes to his team for tonight’s clash with Arsenal.

Emre Can and Sadio Mane come in to the Reds’ starting line-up at Emirates Stadium with Georginio Wijnaldum and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain dropping to the bench, meaning Philippe Coutinho, Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Mane all play.

“They’re all fit,” Klopp told Sky Sports, after being asked why the quartet start.

“We had no other reasons for rotation, so we thought about it and I think especially after the midweek game of Arsenal we could imagine how they will play. So line-up-wise, we thought it makes sense. Not only with these four, all the rest as well.”

On the importance of starting the festive period with a strong performance and result, the boss said: “If you can get the result it’s very important, if you don’t get the result you have to ignore it immediately and strike back in the next game.

“In a perfect world we’d win all the games, but that didn’t happen so far. Over the whole season so far the boys were in good shape. In most of the games we performed more than OK but tonight we need to really be at our best because it’s a proper challenge.”