‘All over the place’: Jurgen Klopp admits one area of Liverpool’s game was ‘not good’ against Brighton

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Jurgen Klopp has admitted that Liverpool’s passing was so poor against Brighton in the 3-3 draw today.

Speaking to liverpoolfc.com after the game, Klopp reflected on an apparent lack of confidence throughout his team. In doing so, the manager conceded that Liverpool’s passing was ‘not good’ at Anfield.

“We had confident moments today obviously, at least Bobby when he scored the second goal you could see a lot of that and we had other moments, good moments. But the passing game was not good today, we passed balls all over the place, which I think that is now only to explain with not being confident in that moment,” said the German.

“Not the general situation, just how the game started. We are under pressure, we don’t ignore that. It’s not now that we increase it every day but it’s there.”

Liverpool failing to hit their targets

On paper, Liverpool’s passing wasn’t all that bad against Brighton. As per Fotmob, the Reds made 417 passes on Saturday afternoon, with 81 per cent finding their target.

This was actually a better percentage than Brighton, who completed 77 per cent of their 334 passes.

But watching the game play out, it was clear that Liverpool weren’t as slick as they can be passing the ball to each other.

Thiago Alcantara in particular seemed to struggle with this in the early parts of the game. This was reflected in the usually impeccable Spaniard picking out just 83 per cent of his balls.

It wasn’t just the lack of accuracy, though. Passes often seemed to be played into the wrong areas. Whether too far in-front or, more commonly, too far behind, moves broke down too many times.

As a result, there wasn’t a great deal of fluidity to Liverpool’s game on Saturday. Unfortunately, that’s something we’ve had to get used to over recent times.

A lack of confidence is certainly apparent and to some extent, understandable. But Liverpool haven’t lost their quality overnight. There’s no real reason for them to go into this kind of game not expecting to win.

Poor form comes and goes in football and Liverpool can’t be at it every game. Klopp really needs to find a way to get his team firing again, though. Arsenal lie in wait, it doesn’t get any easier.

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