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The England youth international was the only player in the shootout to fail, as the Gunners prevailed on penalties
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has taken the blame for Rhian Brewster’s decisive failure in their penalty shootout loss to Arsenal in the Community Shield.
The Premier League champions finished seven places and 43 points ahead of the Gunners last season, but Arsenal finally lifted the trophy at Wembley on Saturday.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang gave the Gunners an early lead with a good shot, but Liverpool, who tried to dictate the procedures, tied with 17 minutes remaining through Takumi Minamino.
The game went to penalties and Aubameyang scored the decisive kick after Brewster failed to convert as the Gunners won the penalty shootout by a 5-4 margin.
Klopp insisted the foul will not hurt the 20-year-old, who looks set for his first season with Liverpool’s senior team after playing on loan at Swansea City last season.
“This will not harm Rhian,” Klopp said. “If anyone is to blame, it is me. I wanted him in position because he is a true and confident finisher. Not today. That happens in life and in football.
“We all have to learn and show that we can handle defeats. If I had scored and someone else failed, it’s the same issue. There are more important reasons than that. Losing it like this is possible. I’ve never seen him lose one, but it happens. “
Liverpool were made to regret the waste in front of goal and perhaps the lack of sharpness in attack, with Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah unusually subdued, and their problems in the last third did not go down well with Klopp.
He told BT Sport: “Today I was sad. When you play against a formation like this, which happens to us almost always, not only when we are 1-0 down, even when it is 0-0, many teams play like this, then you need be really cool in the final third.
“Sometimes you want to force it, create angles, create crossovers, go behind, all these kinds of things. The pace for that dropped a bit.
“We couldn’t exactly create the opportunity we wanted, but we had two and the third we scored with. Against a team with the quality of Arsenal, some days should be enough.
“When you finish it, it is enough. When you don’t finish it, it is not enough and today was not enough.”
Klopp was adamant that Arsenal barely threatened after taking the lead, adding: “I think they had exactly two shots on goal and a situation that was similar.
“After a long ball on the diagonal, we left Neco [Williams] alone and Auba could come in to finish it off. The other moment Ali [Alisson] made a save. That was it, practically, “he said.
“Other than that, we had to play against a low block with an incredible threat of counter attack. In these games you need the finishing touch then.
“In the end we created enough moments, but we should have created more. We had a lot of the ball but we had to play.
“We had some good moments, Sadio had chances, we deserved the draw for sure and then we could have scored more.
“We didn’t do that and we had to accept it. A penalty shoot-out can always be a lottery. We were unlucky there and congratulations to Arsenal. We respect the competition.”
Liverpool will begin their defense of the Premier League title at home to promoted Leeds United on 12 September.
