Klopp Talk: It Was Never Really Our Game

Liverpool lost all of the momentum from last week’s historic victory over Manchester United, falling 1-0 to relegation battlers Bournemouth in a blow to their top four chase.

The Reds continued their philanthropic habits against relegation battlers this season, losing to the Premier League’s bottom side for the third time this campaign.

The Cherries were clearly the better side of the day, seizing their chance through a first half Philip Billing goal following a well worked counterattack.

Despite being open on the break and overwhelmed in midfield, Liverpool still had an opportunity to snatch at least a point late on at the Vitality Stadium when Adam Smith was adjudged to have blocked Diogo Jota’s goal-bound header with his arm. However, Mohamed Salah shockingly blazed the penalty wide left and the Reds never looked like scoring the rest of the match.

“It was never really our game,” Jurgen Klopp admitted after the loss.

“We didn’t enjoy the challenge to face a deep and compact side. Bournemouth deserved all three points today.

“Of course we were dominant in the first half, they had their counter attacks what they wanted to have, we didn’t have,” Klopp continued.

“I think the spaces we had to play in were super clear, super open, and we didn’t use them often enough the spaces next to their two midfielders, the rest was more or less busy with covering other spaces.

“But we didn’t use that often enough, didn’t enjoy the challenge enough to face a deep, compact side.”

“They did always the same stuff but it was successful because we didn’t defend it well, then I thought we started okay in the second half, we get the penalty, miss it, then after that we were in a real rush and didn’t create enough.”

The Reds next play when they travel to the Bernabeu on Wednesday seeking to overturn a mammoth 5-2 gap in the second leg of their round-of-16 clash with Real Madrid.