Jurgen Klopp's tantrum a result of his own 'dumb' decision: Liverpool manager should have rested all of his key men ahead of Manchester United clash

For many, this was classic Klopp: all smiles after victories but nothing but bitter when games don't go his team's way.

He certainly doesn't do himself any favours with such pathetic displays of petulance, and while a degree of frustration was understandable in the context of the game, his reaction to a rather innocuous line of questioning was utterly unacceptable. Particularly when one considers that Klopp had contributed to Liverpool's lacklustre performance in extra-time.

Have the Reds been desperately unlucky with injuries this season? Absolutely, and Klopp deserves enormous credit for somehow keeping his team in Premier League title contention while reaching the last eight of both the FA Cup and the Europa League, after winning the Carabao Cup with kids.

Make no mistake about it: this season has been a stunning demonstration of Klopp's incredible coaching skills and amazing man-management. However, it was a little hard to listen to Klopp complaining about the effects of too many games at Old Trafford when he had fielded a ridiculously strong side against Sparta Prague just three days earlier.

Klopp said that he didn't know which players to replace during extra-time because so many of his key players were shattered. "We could have [taken off] Macca (Alexis Mac Allister)definitely, Wataru [Endo] definitely, Darwin [Nunez] definitely, Lucho [Diaz] we did then, Joey [Gomez]," he admitted to reporters afterwards. "They play all the time, the boys, and today, this extra-time."

And there's the rub: those players have been playing all the time - and Klopp is partly responsible in that regard.

With Liverpool 5-1 up from the first leg in Prague, there was absolutely no way Endo, Nunez and Gomez should have been anywhere near the starting line-up against Sparta - and the same goes for Dominik Szoboszlai, Mohamed Salah and Andy Robertson, too.

All of those players bar Gomez have recently recovered from injuries of varying degrees of severity in recent weeks, so why on earth were they utilised in the second leg of a tie that was already over?

Salah, Szoboszlai and Robertson ended up playing 90 minutes against Sparta - not one of them made it past the 77th minute at Old Trafford. Gomez was also replaced before the midway point of extra-time.

As for Nunez, he stayed on right until the end, but should have been hooked long before his loose pass - an undoubted by-product of the fatigue that Klopp acknowledged - allowed United to level the game through Marcus Rashford.

The manager admirably refused to throw anyone under the bus for the unforced errors that cost Liverpool the game - "absolutely no criticism about that" - but he could have at least acknowledged his own role in the defeat.

The trip to Old Trafford was always going to be an intense affair, both physically and emotionally draining. The FA Cup, after all, represents United's last chance to win a trophy this season. Erik ten Hag and several highly-paid players face a real fight to convince Sir Jim Ratcliffe & Co. that they are worth keeping for next season, meaning a spirited showing was inevitable - particularly against their hated, quadruple-chasing rivals.

The game also came just a week after Liverpool had produced a sensational second-half performance against Manchester City that required as much energy as quality. Consequently, the decision to send some of his most trusted lieutenants back into battle before a game at United made no sense.

Klopp complains constantly about fixtures - and often with a large degree of justification, particularly when it comes to the scheduling of games after international breaks - while some journalists are undeniably adept at getting a rise out of him. They know precisely how to push his buttons.

However, there was nothing out of order about the line of questioning he faced on Sunday. He had every right to be disappointed with the conclusion of the contest. It was a tough defeat to take; in the circumstances, any manager would have been upset by the manner of the loss.

But that doesn't excuse his post-match tantrum. It was completely uncalled for. Liverpool hadn't been robbed by the referee. Or shafted by VAR. The congested fixture list hasn't been kind to the injury-ravaged Reds and fatigue was the determining factor in Sunday's defeat. Klopp admitted himself, "That was the first time that I really saw my team struggling, but that’s how it is. We played a lot of football recently." And they have, making tiredness inevitable. But it was also at least partially avoidable.

Liverpool's players made an awful lot of mistakes on Sunday, but none bigger than the one made by Klopp three days previously. Indeed, one suspects that the true source of his frustration at Old Trafford was the belated realisation that he had contributed to his own team's downfall with a nonsensical starting XI against Sparta. Sometimes even a genius can make a "dumb" decision.