Klopp Talk: We Gave Them Too Many Set Pieces

Not many positives can be taken out of Tuesday’s performance against Red Star Belgrade. Liverpool looked stagnant and frustrated the whole night. Manager Jürgen Klopp was equally as flummoxed by the Reds’ poor performance as those of us watching.

How did things end up the way that they did?

“The start was pretty intense, that was clear,” he admitted. “Red Star wanted to strike back, which they did; they brought in a few new players, very important players for them obviously. We had the first big chance – Daniel [Sturridge] with a very big one. Each goal in a game like this leads the game in a specific direction. We gave them too many set-pieces before they scored, so they could kind of train it in a proper match, and then they scored with a header after a corner. The second goal was kind of out of the blue; we had the ball and gave it away.”

The second half looked better for Liverpool, but as Klopp succinctly explains, “We didn’t score.”

In the other game in group C, Napoli held PSG to a draw, which means that Napoli slips ahead of Liverpool on goal difference. The Reds still have difficult, and now hugely significant, games against both of those teams still to play to decide who makes it out of the group and moves onto the knockout rounds.

This was the game that Liverpool really needed to win, and the dropped the ball in a huge way. And, to quote the boss, “We didn’t score.”