‘Not cool’: How Jurgen Klopp reacted to 41st-minute moment in Liverpool 1-3 Lyon

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Jurgen Klopp reacts to the equalising goal in Liverpool 1-3 Lyon. The Reds’ boss wasn’t exactly thrilled with what he saw.

Liverpool slumped to a 3-1 defeat in Dubai on Sunday. Lyon put them to the sword but, as Phil Thompson points out, maybe that was to be expected.

The French side went into this one having already played in this mid-season break. They were sharper as a result and eventually overpowered the Reds, despite Liverpool’s bright start.

Fabio Carvalho put them 1-0 up inside 45 seconds here. That suggested Liverpool would comfortably see off Lyon but as the game went on, their opponents took over. The second half, in particular, was a strong showing.

Things could have been easier, though, if Liverpool didn’t concede an equaliser right before half time. A defensive mixup made it happen – Caoimhín Kelleher stormed out of goal to sweep-up but Andy Robertson tried to pass it back to him. The misunderstanding saw the ball nudged past Kelleher for Alexandre Lacazette to tap home.

Liverpool 1-3 Lyon

Jurgen Klopp reacted to the moment after the game, describing it as ‘not cool’. It certainly wasn’t a goal Liverpool needed to give up.

“[We were] really aggressive, played well, good connected, could have scored a second one and then we concede the equaliser with a misunderstanding between Robbo and Caoimhin,” said Klopp, per Liverpoolfc.com. “Not cool – but can happen, obviously.

“Second half we had to change a lot [and] with all the things we did in training it was clear 60 minutes is the maximum what anybody can play. And then we were really young and not well organised anymore.

“Let me say it like this, when we lost the ball then it ended up in front of our goal. Every ball we lost was a counter-attack and was pretty much a big chance, that’s of course not how it should look, but that’s a learning curve and we will use this game to learn from.”

It’s the right mentality. Liverpool were far from perfect here but the reasons for that are clear. The equaliser was really just ‘one of those things’ – and perhaps more likely to happen with players featuring for the first time in weeks.

We’re not exactly worried, then. Liverpool will play AC Milan on Friday and we fully expect an improvement from the entire side. The real test comes on the 22nd, though – the Reds face Manchester City in the EFL Cup.

It’ll certainly be more difficult to excuse errors in that one.