Klopp blames Swansea ‘wall’ for ‘very, very quiet crowd’

Sarah Winterburn

Jurgen Klopp claims that only Liverpool arrived at Anfield with the intention to play football, leaving them to find a way to negotiate their way around a ‘wall’.

The Anfield crowd were quiet as the Reds struggled to find a way through the Swans defence in the opening half-hour; we’re inclined to blame Klopp himself for picking a stodgy midfield.

Liverpool eventually lost 3-2 but Klopp said of the first-half performance: “In the first half, you could hear in the stadium it wasn’t the most entertaining game but we had a job to do.

“If you want to have a real spectacular on the pitch then you need two sides to do it, and first half only we played. They defended.

“You need to play around and create, have a look where the best space is and pass through.

“We had these situations. We had some moments of brilliant play.”

“I could ask for us to be spot on and 100% every game but it isn’t like that.

“We had four or five really good moments when we did really well, and that’s what you need to do in games like this. You have to take the lead, that changes the game.

“But it wasn’t a big problem. It was 0-0. It was very, very quiet in the stadium.

“You need to play like this sometimes. You cannot always go with the head through the wall.”