Klopp Confirms Football is the Worst: "We Forgot to Close the Game"

Underwhelming transfers in, unwanted transfers out and set piece concessions...smells like a fresh season at Liverpool Football Club. Unlike the 4-3 thriller against Arsenal that opened the last campaign, Jürgen Klopp’s drama- and [already] injury-hit squad couldn’t last the final two minutes required to take full points against Watford.

A poor first period saw the Reds down 2-1, with Klopp criticizing the seeming lack of ideas, “The first half I was not too happy with,” the German admitted. “There wasn’t enough direction in our game. We pass, we pass, we pass but I couldn’t see what we wanted [to do with the ball].

“[But] it was a start, the first half; not a good one but we could use it in the halftime talk. For the second half, it was much better because there was direction.”

But while there was marked in improvement in the second period that saw the Liverpool pull ahead, Klopp conceded that the strategy of sitting deep and inviting pressure after going up 3-2 was ultimately their undoing.

“We forgot to close the game, to be honest. The situations, counterattacks, things like this. We defended then a little too deep. That’s when if you lose a header—that’s always going to happen—it’s a corner.” Pausing, perhaps recalling the equalizing set piece goal, he added with a rueful grimace, “Or even more.”

Also, the month of August is dark and full of terrors.