Midfielder Jordan Henderson remains a very "important" player for Liverpool despite being rested for some of the club's recent fixtures, Jürgen Klopp has said.
The Reds captain was left on the substitute's bench for the crucial Champions League group stage clash with Spartak Moscow at Anfield on Wednesday night, which Klopp's charges won 7-0.
But the Liverpool manager said in the aftermath of that victory that Henderson, also rested for the win at Stoke City last week, would return to his starting line-up for the Merseyside derby this weekend.
Asked about Henderson, the German said that he is "not sure" whether it is an English thing or an "old fashioned" tradition but declared "even a captain cannot play all the time" and he cannot be chosen to start "only because of the armband."
Klopp insisted that the England international "is in a good moment" and is also "in good shape" but that against Spartak he made a decision which made "real sense in these kind of weeks."
"You need the players on the pitch to know 100 per-cent what a derby is about. That makes sense, I would say," Klopp declared, hinting at Henderson's big-game nous.
Liverpool captaincy "the hardest job in world football"
He continued: "I made the decision for the last game and I only spoke about it because I knew people would say, 'oh yes, fantastic game, Jordan didn't play' and then make a story out of it."
But the Reds boss said that his skipper is "such an important player" for the club and suggested he does not understand why he has to reiterate that, acknowledging "how people sometimes are talking about" his captaincy.
"Being skipper of Liverpool is the hardest job in world football because the man who had the armband before him is Steven Gerrard, [but] sorry, he's finished playing football and we cannot get him back," he said.
Klopp said that he wishes that "everybody respects" that Henderson is Liverpool captain "because he deserved it" and "because he is the right man for the job and all that stuff."
Yet Klopp insisted that does not necessarily mean that Henderson "can play all of the games until he is injured", frustratedly insisting that it is "actually no story but in England" and "especially in Liverpool", calling the story now " done."