Jürgen Klopp: “It Was 2-1 Because Time Ran Out”

Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images

The Liverpool manager was unhappy with the result as the Reds fell to their rivals in the northwest derby, but he still felt like his side did enough to earn a result. Not many will agree with this assessment.

Well that was pretty terrible. Liverpool looked fairly abject from the off, struggling to connect with cohesive moves against a Manchester United side that was looking for a lifeline. The Reds put some decent stretches together, but yet again conceded first and gave themselves a huge hill to climb after getting put to the sword from a swift counter in the second half.

Manager Jürgen Klopp was obviously not happy with the result. When asked about what his emotions were after the match, the garrulous German gaffer kept it pretty succint.

“We lost. That says, I think, everything about my expected emotions. That’s it. Very disappointed about the result.”

Despite the frustration, Klopp had a rosier outlook on the match than most fans and pundits. He felt that his side created enough opportunities to earn a result despite going down 2-0.

“We all know how football games look when you have such an aggressive start, such a bright start if you want, if we would have scored there but didn’t. We showed the boys a couple of situations from the first half where we did exactly what we had to do, where we played in their formation, where we found Bobby and how Harvey was open and how Hendo and Millie were open in these moments, how we then could get in the box, show the two wingers where we wanted them, more often coming in behind the centre-halves and things like this. We were a bit too long, too wide. One-nil down but rather positive half-time, getting out, again a wild start if you want, but we are in the game now, really in the game. Then we conceded a second and that’s not helpful. That obviously created a special atmosphere here. When we scored our goal, which I think we absolutely deserved in this game, it was slightly late. We had more moments where De Gea, top saves, or they blocked our shots and these kind of things and these are the facts. It was 2-1 because time ran out because and we had not the clear-cut chances in the last two or three minutes anymore because the watch just ran down without real football because of different situations.”

So basically, Jürgen, if only Liverpool had just had more time. John Creasy agrees.

Yes, the Reds seemed the more likely side to score in the last 15 minutes based on the pressure they ramped to up try a nick a late equalizer. It just so happens, however, that these games are known to be an allotted 90-minutes plus a few minutes of last gasp stoppage time.

I love you Jürgen, but I don’t think the team really did quite enough to feel like a point was deserved from the match.