Klopp Talk: It Was Intense

Following the 1-1 draw that saw Liverpool and Arsenal split points, Jurgen Klopp was in an upbeat mood about the game that saw them leave London with only 1 point.

“It was intense, very intense. It is clear Arsenal are in a very good moment.” The Reds boss said. “We made life a bit too easy for them in the first half, formation-wise I was not happy at how compact we were and stuff like that. When we had the ball it was good, we were a threat, we were in behind. The start was like ‘Wow, Arsenal are there’ but then the first attack we had, everyone knew ‘OK, they are not too bad as well!’ It was then a pretty open game. That’s OK.”

Our set-pieces were outstanding and we should have scored from them; Virgil said immediately after the game he should have had a hat-trick, but he had not even one [goal].” Klopp continued. “That’s a shame. Second half we changed formation a bit and it helped us today. We scored a really nice goal, had super counter-attacks, played good football in a lot of moments, but – as they have done a few times already this year – Arsenal brought pretty much all of their strikers on… I was actually waiting for Van Persie and Bergkamp!”

“Because first half we were not compact enough, the three in midfield had to do too much and then the one time we don’t close the half-space, they play the ball through and could score the goal. It’s not nice, but of course a point at Arsenal will always be an absolutely good result so we take it.” Klopp finished. Now let’s carry on.”

Liverpool will take on Red Star Belgrade on Tuesday. Jurgen Klopp will need to figure out his creativity problem before then.