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LONDON: Jurgen Klopp admitted that he had to give Liverpool a wake-up call before Mohamed salah the blush was saved with a late penalty that salvaged a 1-1 draw against Fulham on Sunday.
Klopp’s team was punished for a sloppy first-half performance at Craven Cottage when Bobby Decordova-Reid gave Fulham a surprising lead.
But Salah rescued the Premier league champions after Aboubakar kamara handled with 11 minutes remaining.
Liverpool remain in second place and rank behind leader Tottenham in goal difference.
“If they had to wake up, I don’t know, but I can’t write a book and throw it on the field for them to read. But I wanted us to revolutionize the game,” Klopp said.
“A good start is nice, but if you don’t have it, you start over. We had half an hour or so to get our feet in the game, so I yelled at them a bit.
“After that it was better and the second half was good. They fought for the result but we had more situations after that and we could have scored more.”
Crystal Palace’s late draw in their 1-1 draw against Tottenham just before Liverpool’s start had given the Reds a chance to go up if they won in West London.
Instead, they will have to wait until Wednesday’s summit meeting with Tottenham at Anfield for their next chance to hit. Jose MourinhoTeam out of pole position.
Liverpool are undefeated in their last eight league games but have been far from their best level of fluency and have not won in their last five league games away from home.
“We deal with human beings and things like this can happen. When you look at the results of the teams that play in the Champions League or Europa League in the week, they had a difficult weekend,” Klopp said.
“It was crazy, and maybe this was the weekend where we all felt it a little bit. But you have to fight against that, and that’s what the guys did. We keep going. Tottenham is the next challenge.”
In addition to Klopp’s concerns, Joel Matip suffered a back injury that led him to join Liverpool’s long list of injuries that already included his central teammates. Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez.
Klopp’s pregame admission that Diogo Jota will be out for up to eight weeks with a knee injury leaves the Reds boss relying on Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane to lead the attack during the hectic Christmas period. and New Year.
Fulham has just two wins in its last 11 games in all competitions, but this energetic effort showed that Scott Parker’s fourth bottom is capable of avoiding relegation.
Klopp had warned his players not to underestimate Fulham as they watched Tottenham’s game, but his erratic performance suggested they had not been listening carefully.
With coronavirus restrictions relaxed in London, it was the first time Fulham was able to have fans in its stadium since last season’s promotion.
Ivan Cavaleiro came close to giving the perfect welcome to those 2,000 fans when Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson Becker saved his stinging goal in the fourth minute.
Cavaleiro threatened again when his timely run overcame Liverpool’s offside trap, but his low shot was superb from Alisson.
Even Alisson had no response when Fulham finally scored the goal his dominance deserved in the 25th minute.
Salah gave up possession after a push to the Egyptian who went unpunished at the edge of the Liverpool box.
Lookman passed the ball to Decordova-Reid and the winger delivered an unstoppable blow that passed Alisson in the far corner.
Liverpool dominated the final stages and leveled in the 79th minute when Kamara blocked Georginio Wijnaldum’s free kick with his arm.
Salah’s penalty was poorly executed, but still slipped under a feeble attempt by Alphonse Areola to save his 13th goal of the season.
