Football
At last, Jurgen Klopp speaks after Liverpool’s defeat at Old Trafford
Liverpool on Monday night compounded their poor start to the season with a 2-1 defeat at Old Trafford after drawing their first two games thus leaving them with just two points from the maximum nine points.
Strangely, both Liverpool and United had come into the match in poor form, but it was the Red Devils that rose to the occasion, producing a vastly improved performance and richly deserving their victory, which came through first-half goal from Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford’s second-half effort as Mohamed Salah’s solitary goal was not enough to earn the Reds at least a point.
Amazingly, United were the far more impressive side, but Klopp reckons his team would have come away with three points if they had just shown more conviction in their play.
‘We are in a tricky situation injury-wise. That’s how it is,’ he told Sky Sports. ‘We get through the week with 14-15 senior players available. We have to make sure that none of them get injured now during the week because there’s no real options left anymore.
‘Even with our situation, if we played a little bit better, a little bit more convinced about what we do, we should have won this game. I know it sounds ridiculous, but that’s how I see it. We lost it and now we go from here.’
A glance at the statistics would suggest Klopp has an argument, with the visitors finishing with 70 percent possession, more shots and shots on target than their hosts.
However, those numbers did not really represent the feel of the game, with Manchester United looking the better side for the majority of the match, other than when Liverpool threw caution to the wind in the last 15 minutes when Mohamed Salah scored the consolation.
Klopp added to the BBC that he expects a much better display on Saturday as the Reds host Bournemouth: ‘I don’t have a lot of arguments, we lost the game. On another day, with more conviction about what we are doing, we can turn it around. That is how it is.
‘To play the football we are able to play, we want to fight. We have a good home game on Saturday and Anfield has to be rocking. We have to set the fire and the rhythm.
‘We will try absolutely everything that every Liverpool supporter will expect – we will fight for our lives.’
