Liverpool ‘lucky’ Man City were not in ‘greedy mood’; Klopp admits his players had ‘real problem’

Lewis Oldham
Klopp on Liverpool loss

Jurgen Klopp has admitted that his Liverpool players were “lucky” Manchester Cty were not in a “greedy mood” when they faced off at the Etihad on Saturday.

Liverpool went a goal in front against Man City as Mohamed Salah broke the deadlock against the run of play.

Man City’s made the most of their dominance as they equalised just ten minutes after falling behind. Julian Alvarez scored from close range after being set up by Jack Grealish.

The hosts quickly took the game away from Liverpool in the second half as Kevin De Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan netted shortly after the restart. Grealish later got on the scoresheet as the game finished 4-1 in City’s favour.

Liverpool were unable to lay a glove on Man City in the second half. This defeat leaves them six points adrift of fourth-placed Tottenham but Klopp’s side still have a game in hand.

Speaking after his side’s 4-1 defeat, Klopp admitted his players created a “real problem” for themselves at the Etihad.

“I think we saw what we expected in the first half, a dominant City side with us organised, had our moments,” Klopp told BT Sport.

“When we played we were really in the game and caused them some problems as well, scored a wonderful goal. We had another big counter-attacking moment where we could have played it better.

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“So 1-1 at half-time. We can show the boys what to do, where to defend them because the key areas are clear. If we don’t defend the double six we have a real problem. If we don’t defend the double 10 – Gundogan and De Bruyne – then it is pretty much impossible because the pitch becomes too big.

“We concede this first goal with I think an open ball in midfield where we don’t even have a challenge then we are too deep and the counter-attack happens, great play. 2-1.

“3-1 we have a massive overload on one side, should win the ball but don’t even have a challenge. These kind of things cannot happen. But that happened and after that… wow! We just had to follow as they did whatever they wanted. We were lucky they weren’t in a greedy mood.

“About from that, there is nothing good to say about this game. This is a game we have to use unfortunately and make clear which things cannot happen. We can not have challenges in key areas or be that open. Now I stand here and have to explain it but I cannot explain it.

“I cannot change it now, here, I can just report what I saw and we will talk about it tomorrow. These things happened too often.”

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