Klopp Talk: It Was Bad, Bad and Bad

The season is obviously still young, but if the trend continues, it will be a massive encouragement to all Liverpool fans in the midst of a tough stretch of form. Because if even as hopeless a case as Alberto Moreno can potentially come good, then no one is completely irredeemable. Here’s looking at you and your £100K-a-week, Dejan Lovren.

Jinxed it. Sorry, you guys.

It may be a case of recency bias and it is certainly a topic worthy of debate, but it could be argued that the shambolic Dejan Lovren just put in the most shambolic performance of his three shambolic years at Liverpool in a horror show against Tottenham.

A Premier League record 80,827 were in attendance at Wembley Stadium to witness Liverpool get humiliated by the Harry Kane team. Unbeaten to the Londoners in nearly five years, the Serbian defender hamstrung his side with two crucial errors, gifting goals to both Kane and Heung-Min Son inside of 12 minutes. After nearly handing the speedy Korean a third goal, Jürgen Klopp finally decided that he’d seen enough, substituting Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in place of the defender in the 31^st minute.

The Liverpool manager has infamously deflected calls for defensive upgrades in the wake of a failed move for Southampton’s Virgil Van Dijk, "We have four [centre-backs],” Klopp said at the time. “I don’t think we need more."

"Look out there and tell me five that would make us stronger, five. Then you win a prize! It’s difficult how it is.”

The German, his side now having conceded a league worst 13 goals on the road, is singing a different tune:

“In the decisive moments their desire was bigger than ours,” he admitted in the post-match interview

"It was bad. Bad, bad, bad.

"The whole game the whole result was all our fault—Tottenham was good, they needed to be good, but we made it much too easy for them.

"The first goal was a little throw in and we are not really there. It was just really bad, bad, bad defending. The second, a counter attack, when the ball passes Dejan Lovren it is already too late.

"Coming back in the game with the goal we had our chances, but it's nothing to talk about today. The game was finished then. We came here for a result and had not one second to get a result."