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Jürgen Klopp felt Liverpool were guilty of “massive errors” when he analyzed his team’s performance during Sunday’s 7-2 loss to Aston Villa.
The Reds suffered a major Premier League defeat at Villa Park as they found themselves trailing 4-1 at halftime on a night to forget for the visitors.
Afterwards, the coach spoke candidly about his team’s display and what led to the surprising result in his post-match press conference.
Read on to see what Klopp had to say.
On how you would describe what happened …
First of all, congratulations to Aston Villa and all the credit to Aston Villa because they deserve these three points in a massive way, because they played a really good game. The strange result is yes, because Aston Villa played very well, but on the other hand because we did it in different areas particularly badly. That helps, obviously, no. Tonight almost everyone made huge mistakes around goals. The first was obviously Adrian; That was a big mistake, yes, but the reaction on the goal was an even bigger mistake, how we reacted. We have to take risks when we play offensively, that is absolutely clear, that is completely normal and that is football. But you have to protect your risks, that is also normal, these situations. And we didn’t do that tonight. That means we had very good opportunities, we played very good football, we entered the area, at times we were indefensible in the area, which is quite rare. But every ball we lost, wherever it was, was a massive counterattack and directly a real problem.
Second goal [fourth] The goal was a free kick, very well done. Now they were faster on the mind than us, all these things. In the challenges they were more consistent, they all caused us problems. Being 4-1 down, but I think probably even you, when you watched the game, felt when we scored the only goal, it was like, OK, there’s still something to go for. That’s what we also think at half time, if we can stop doing the below-average things or the bad things and we can improve on the good things, score one, score two, and keep playing. But this was not possible tonight because we made similar mistakes again and then the deflected goals came in. That, of course, is bad luck, but it is also bad luck, a deflected ball can be completely unlucky; Tonight I thought it was a 50 percent block, like we didn’t block it properly, that’s why the ball was deflected. We have conceded these goals, strange scoreboard, but we have to accept it. The only good news is that no one was injured after the game.
On whether the injured Alisson Becker will return for the Everton game …
There is no possibility of playing against Everton. We don’t know exactly. Let me say it could have been worse with that injury, that’s for sure. We were a bit lucky, but it’s not like I can play Everton. I don’t want to put a deadline on it, but four weeks might be possible, six weeks might be more likely, but I don’t know. We have to value this, that’s right.
But not just for tonight, now it’s easy and people are like that, I’m not sure if journalists are like that too, but now people will go for Adrian and things like that. Yes, the first goal was not good, of course. But other than that, I don’t think it had much to do with all the other goals. We didn’t help him tonight, let me put it that way, or we even did the opposite. He is a very good goalkeeper who played 11 [Premier League] games for us last year and I think we won almost all of them. Everything is fine. Tonight our doorman was not the problem. Only around the first goal. And the reaction to that first goal was not their problem, that was our problem then. We have to do better, we can do better.
It’s quite strange when you see a game like this, it’s not that I’ve seen these games like 20 times from my team, I see all these things and I’m old enough to know that strange things can happen in life and in football. But I saw all the things that happened tonight and I know that if you lose the decisive challenges, you will lose football games. We did that tonight. If you don’t properly protect your own offensive things, you will get in trouble. And tonight we got into trouble. And all these things happened tonight. You could see it in moments, and I don’t think I had to say much of that, but tonight, in different challenges, Aston Villa definitely wanted it more than we did. That’s something I saw and obviously I don’t like it, but now the guys go to their national teams and when they come back, hopefully everyone healthy, we have two days to prepare for the game against Everton and then we have a chance to do better.
On taking a measured approach to your responses during your post-match press assignments …
Nothing I could say tonight would help with that result. What should it be now? Completely outraged or something? Is it just one time? I would think so, I would like to think so, but I can’t prove that tonight. If people want to hear it, I can say it: it’s something unique. The proof of that will be in the weeks and months to come and not because I say so tonight. A game like tonight shouldn’t happen, one hundred percent. It never happened since I’ve been here; I really don’t remember, as I’m not good at remembering these things anyway, but I don’t think I’ve lost that much. It is not a personal defeat, but it is massive. So all the things you saw too, and you can make of them whatever you want, obviously it’s completely fine, as always, but for me it’s only important how we react. The only problem is that we cannot react tomorrow, we cannot react on Tuesday, we have to show the reaction in two weeks. But okay, that’s the situation and, like I said, guys are very, very self-critical. None of them would sit there now and point the finger at him or him or him: “He was responsible.” These guys are very self-critical and they know that tonight everyone has their hand in this result. We have to deal with it and we will solve it. It’s not pretty but it’s life and it’s football and that’s it.
On whether he felt that the preparation for the game was ‘not correct’ with injuries and illnesses ruling out the players …
That’s really for fans and journalists to do this kind of thing: ‘He’s not, he’s not, he’s not.’ There is no need for an excuse, absolutely not. Regardless of which team we might have lined up tonight, I wouldn’t expect to lose 7-2, to be honest, 100 percent. It is not necessary, it is absolutely not necessary. I said it at the beginning and it’s true, Aston Villa did it very, very well, but we also helped. This game has its own dynamic and then the influence goes in that direction, one team is flying and the other team is obviously not flying. We know, this is how things can happen, but it shouldn’t happen. 4-1 down, half time, you would normally say we try another five minutes and then we just defend. It is not us. Everyone who saw the game had the feeling that if we scored once, then we scored [for] 4-2, then the game has probably started or not. Not if we play like tonight, but if we can improve in the game later, then it would have been the game. Nothing to do with the players we miss tonight; yes, we obviously miss them, but it had nothing to do with the result or the players who replaced them.
On whether he spoke to the players in the locker room immediately after …
I don’t really know since when, but I’ve been talking to the players after the game for a while now. Whether we win or lose, it has nothing to do with it. I talked to the guys, yeah. When the boys go to international matches, I always do. Maybe it’s a little longer, but today I did it like last week, last week, like the last 20 or 30 games. I always speak briefly with the players.
