Jurgen Klopp says it’s ‘tough to accept’ exactly how Brighton beat Liverpool on Sunday. The Reds crashed out of the FA Cup.
Liverpool’s poor form continued on Sunday as Brighton knocked them out of the FA Cup. It took a last-minute winner from Kaoru Mitoma to see off the Reds – but that goal was part of why Jurgen Klopp was visibly upset afterwards.
He talked to beIN Sports for a post-match interview, where he dissected the problems Liverpool essentially caused for themselves. One aspect of the defeat was particularly ‘tough to accept’, though.
“We gave, again, too many easy balls away for their counter-attacks,” said Klopp. “Those were actually, in the first half, the best situations they had – when we gave them the ball, unnecessarily.
“They scored two goals from set-pieces which is so tough to accept but they did it.”
Jurgen Klopp upset with Liverpool
Klopp was far from his usual self in that interview and it appears clear that this season is taking a toll on him. After all, nothing he does appears to have a great effect on Liverpool.
And again, this was a case of ‘small’ mistakes costing the team. It didn’t come down to formation, or gameplan, or anything Klopp really has much control over. Liverpool conceded form set-pieces and kept giving the ball away.
That’s been the same all season, admittedly – minus set-piece goals. The goals against Liverpool can honestly come from anywhere.
And it’s certainly not a case of Liverpool not working on set-pieces on training. Instead, there seems to be constant panicking in defence whenever teams get relatively close to goal. That was evident as Mitoma controlled the ball in the box, took another touch, and then fired home. It’s a great goal but not one a confident team should allow.
So where does Klopp go from here? We think he needs to switch formation again just to try and shake things up. It sparked a spell of good results pre-World Cup and it could do again.
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