Speaking to the media after Liverpool suffered a 2-0 defeat to Everton at Goodison Park, Jürgen Klopp expressed that he has ‘no good thoughts at all’ about his side’s performance in his final Merseyside derby.
Carrying out his post-match press conference after conducting TV and radio interviews, the German expressed: ‘I had now obviously a few interviews and I would say you can sum up: it was not good enough. We played the game, or let it happen, the game Everton wanted. They scored two goals from set-pieces. The first one we defended somehow three times but in the end we put it on a plate and I don’t think Branthwaite scored it, he didn’t even hit the ball properly but the ball rolls over the line.’
‘After that, we had our best period, we really put them under pressure, we created big chances and didn’t score. Going like that in half-time, each situation we missed gave Everton kind of momentum even more and took away from us. We never had it, but it didn’t help.’
‘And then second half, it was as well not good enough, without the real pressure phase I would say we had to the end of the first half. Then you concede the second goal. I think everybody who is with Everton saw that goal already 20 times or something like that, that’s their routine. Everybody knows they put the ball there. In the end, the player is anyway completely free. I didn’t see it back but I’m pretty sure we could have defended that better. It’s 2-0, atmosphere here, we played like we played, obviously it was not the most inspired performance of all time,’ he admitted.
Embed from Getty ImagesLooking ahead to Liverpool’s four remaining Premier League fixtures, Klopp expressed that seeing out the rest of the season ‘will be now a challenge obviously mentally and physically. Physically, it was clear. If you win a game then the mental turnaround is obviously not a massive problem, but we have now both things to do.’
‘Probably West Ham is waiting and rubbing their hands and hoping that we come there on one leg. But I will try absolutely everything to make sure we are much more ourselves than we were tonight.’
With Arsenal three points clear at the top of the table, and Manchester City just a point behind Liverpool but with two games in hand still to play, Klopp appeared dejected when asked if Wednesday’s defeat brings an end to Liverpool’s title pursuit.
‘I don’t know why I have to answer this question,’ he sighed, ‘obviously you can read the table. So, should I say now we are still fully in?’
‘We need a crisis at [Manchester] City and Arsenal, and need to win football games, because if they start now losing all the games and we do what we did tonight, nothing changed. And we are not safe in the Champions League as well so we should just play better football.’
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