Klopp bemoans two ‘influential situations’ going against Liverpool

Jurgen Klopp complained that West Ham’s first goal “made no sense” and that Aaron Cresswell got away with a “reckless” tackle during Liverpool’s 3-2 defeat.

Liverpool had the chance to move to within a point of league leaders Chelsea on Sunday. They were unbeaten in 25 games across all competitions heading into their trip to face West Ham.

They made a bad start though as the Hammers went a goal ahead inside the first ten minutes. An own-goal from Alisson opened the scoring as he could not keep out Pablo Fornals’ corner.

Ten times managers were frosty at the final whistle

Trent Alexander-Arnold equalised via a superb free-kick before West Ham took control again in the second half.

Goals from Fornals and Kurt Zouma put them 3-1 ahead with around 20 minutes to go. Divock Origi got a goal back for Liverpool but West Ham hung on to earn all three points.

This result moves David Moyes’ side up to third in the Premier League as Liverpool drop down to fourth.

As reported by BBC Sport, Klopp said after the game that he wished his side were “more clinical” versus West Ham:

“Key moments today. The goals and some situations have to go another way. Let’s talk about the game, the first they score is a foul on the goalkeeper, the arm goes into Alisson’s arm so how can he catch it? That makes no sense,” Klopp said.

“We scored the equaliser and fully controlled the game and they only went for the counter. Second half we did not play as clear but over the whole 90 minutes I wished we were more clinical finishers. They do well on the counter, they have quality and the second set-piece we concede.

“Aaron Cresswell’s was a reckless challenge on Jordan Henderson, even when he touched the ball before so you have to control your body. Two situations which were influential but West Ham did not make the decisions and they won the game.

“What can Alisson do? That is why the goalie is protected. If a player goes up in the air with his arm. It is an important part of the body for the goalkeeper. People will say I am making excuses but I am calm. You need normal decisions from a referee and he did not do that.

“We lost too many balls that is why they had counter-attacks. At 1-1 we had them were we wanted. It looked like we lost a bit of patience. We had a lot of situations where we got to the touchline but could not make it count.

“They dropped really deep so it does not make it easy, you have to force and fight them down in the final third. Little things decided it and a few things went against us.

“We were not that calm in the decisive moments, they could not get us. When you try to put the ball into the box they had eight, nine players so we have to go again, do it again. We were not patient enough.

“We can be better 100%, you cannot always play your best result, you have to grind out a result but they scored three goals and we didn’t.”