Jordan Henderson and Jurgen Klopp did their best to put a shine on Liverpool’s 4-1 loss at the hands of rivals Manchester City at Anfield.
The Premier League champions have fallen 10 points off City’s pace and have played one more game than Sunday’s visitors, and Klopp says they’ll discuss the loss on Monday and move on.
“I prefer that we speak tomorrow again tomorrow in the right manner, then we have [Tuesday] off with the right mindset,” Klopp said. “I don’t like downtime too much because then we go home and think our own stuff and think it’s catastrophe. There are worse things in the world than losing a football game. I want them to understand and to know that if we played the football we did in long periods of the game, we would have more points.”
Klopp says it’s all about the errors that cost Liverpool goals, including uncharacteristic mistakes from goalkeeper Alisson Becker.
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"[Alisson] has saved our lives plenty of times, no doubt about that,” Klopp said. “He made two mistakes that’s how it is.”
He said Liverpool was quite good on the day before the meltdown. The Reds did have more possession than City and matched them in shot attempts with eight.
“The performance was good most of the time, really good on a high level,” Klopp said. “On the goals we made massive mistakes. If we made them again each team it’s a problem. Against City it’s a killer.”
🗣 "We played really good football, I can see in your eyes you see it differently."
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) February 7, 2021
Jurgen Klopp takes positives from Liverpool's 4-1 defeat to Manchester City pic.twitter.com/hg1qTB44P0
Klopp would not talk about the title race, admitting that the club’s main goal is to stay inside the top four and clinch a return to the UEFA Champions League.
Liverpool sits fourth with 40 points but has played one or two more matches than four of the next five teams on the table (Chelsea stages theirs at Sheffield United this afternoon).
“Our main target is clear and we will try everything,” he said. “There are enough games to play to secure that but we have to win games.”
If you’re wondering how the team will react to Klopp’s overall praise of the day in a 4-1 win, they may rallly around it.
Here’s the captain, Jordan Henderson, from NBCSN.
“The end result didn’t reflect the performance to be honest but made mistakes in the wrong moments and got punished,” said Henderson, later adding that, “Yes result is very disappointing but I don’t think we’ll be displeased with the performance. Don’t get me wrong it wasn’t brilliant but I didn’t think we deserved to lose by that much.”
