Liverpool fell short at Turf Moor on Saturday after two shots on target were converted for Burnley. Klopp had his say on what went wrong.
The Reds dominated possession with 80% of the ball being held by Liverpool but despite impressive ball retention there were no clear cut chances for Liverpool to convert on a day where frustration ran high.
“[Possession] is what we did well, but in the end you have to use it,” the manager said at his post-match press conference.
“It’s not allowed that you suffer under your own ball possession, that makes no sense. It’s not that we didn’t want it – six or seven times Phil [Coutinho] alone was in the right position to shoot.
“In England you use the word ‘clinical’ – in a lot of situations I saw we were clinical but even then we didn’t score. That’s how it is and we have to accept it.
“I will watch the game again and I am pretty sure I will not see a lot of surprises in this game, I saw everything. When we conceded the first goal, we had a lot of time to win the game.
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“Even at half-time I felt there was still a possibility to do it. In the last moments, we were not where we should have been and that was a little bit of the problem, in the box, around the box.
“I saw crosses – really good crosses – when nobody was in the box. I saw shots when the whole box was full.
“Our timing and decision-making today was not really good. It might have been forced by the result and by the passion of the opponent, but it is how it is.”
Credit where it’s due; Burnley stuck their game plan which was clearly smash and grab. Sean Dyche likely told his players to hold out for a draw if possible and if the opportunity was present grab a goal. A second goal would’ve come as a bonus.
However, the goals Liverpool gave away were avoidable, once again. The finish from Sam Vokes for the first goal was superb but Nathaniel Clyne gave away the ball cheaply costing his team big time.
Klopp said: “We saw the situations coming around the goals. It doesn’t mean that you should concede goals in these situations.
“We could finish the analysis pretty quickly and say ‘OK, we lost 2-0 so why would we want to talk about it? Or what you saw is not important because it’s not allowed to lose here 2-0.’ But, of course, that’s not the way I do it.
“It was a difficult game for us. We lost the ball in the wrong moments, in open moments, counter-attack and counter-pressing.
“Around the first goal, it was a counter-attack and around the second goal, 2-0. The first half was not for drawing self-confidence – we lost a little bit of timing and patience and all this stuff.
“It was not the best timing in offensive situations, really not good. [There were] one or two little counter-attacks of Burnley, that’s it.
“We lost in a game in which we had in both halves about 80 per cent possession. But there are different ways to play football, that’s absolutely OK.
“Especially the two strikers of Burnley, Vokes and Gray, did really well, physically strong guys. The rest defended with big heart.
“I respect this but usually in a game like this, we win, if we don’t make mistakes in the wrong moment. But we did. Now we have to accept the result and carry on.”