Jurgen Klopp bemoans Liverpool ‘no-brainer’ and discloses ‘strange thing’ in Bournemouth loss
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp expressed his disappointment after his team’s 1-0 loss to Bournemouth on Saturday, acknowledging that they failed to demonstrate their desired style of play.
The defeat, which marked their eighth loss in the Premier League and seventh away from home, was caused by Philip Billing’s goal in the first half.
Although Liverpool received their first league penalty in 11 months during the second half when Adam Smith handled a header from substitute Diogo Jota, Mohamed Salah missed the opportunity to increase his season’s goal tally to 23 by sending the ball wide.
“I am very [disappointed], very,” Klopp said. “The game was pretty much the opposite of what we wanted to show and to do today. So I think we played for 95 minutes the game Bournemouth wanted to play and for maybe a few moments we did the stuff we wanted to do.
“In the first half, I think our best moments were similar, finding the half-spaces and going for the last line. We scored a goal that was offside (from Cody Gakpo) but it was a good situation.
“Other situations we had big chances at set-pieces, which we didn’t use. It was a no-brainer where we have to score but in the one situation Bournemouth had, going behind our last line, finding the half spaces there and we didn’t cover each other at this moment.
“Alisson couldn’t save us there. Being 1-0 down but we still had 45 or 50 minutes to change it. We needed to be a bit clearer in our situations. We got a penalty, missed the penalty and now it looked a bit to me like if we score there, it would give us a proper boost.
“But we didn’t score from that and then you could see we were a bit in a rush. Bournemouth had counter-attacking moments with a really big passion, they won, all these boys and then they showed their quality how they kept the ball, we had to track back and defend them there.
“I remember one big chance for them and the rest we defended but it’s still pretty exhausting and then we went into their box and so we lost the game. I am very, very frustrated, yes.”
On the penalty miss, Klopp added: “I think we should have had more penalties [this season] but I cannot tell you when exactly. But there were a lot of situations but today it is not important.
“There are situations where Mo Salah is fouled and doesn’t even get a free-kick and Mo is on the pitch being held but it has nothing to do with the result, you just asked about the penalty.
“We got the penalty and we missed it. If we deserved more, we are a team who is dominant, usually. We are quite a lot in the opposition box, so it is a strange thing [that we didn’t get more]. But now we had one, missed it and that’s the end of the story.”
Jurgen Klopp bemoans Liverpool ‘no-brainer’ and discloses ‘strange thing’ in Bournemouth loss
