Jürgen Klopp's verdict on Bournemouth defeat
Jürgen Klopp reflected on his side's character, the performance of Loris Karius and more in his post-match press conference following Liverpool's 4-3 defeat to Bournemouth.
Read on for a full transcript.
On losing the game…
What can I say? In all our good moments it was pretty clear who were the better side today. I think it was obvious Bournemouth wanted to press high and early, and had no chance for it. We played really good football and were quicker in all our decisions. We wanted to mix up our passes a little bit, short build-up and then direction because Bournemouth are a team that try to press. We had Divock Origi up front and Sadio Mane, who we can use in these situations – which we did twice very well. 2-0 up but then already we didn’t play too well and I didn’t like it too much. I told the boys at half-time that the first half was perfect preparation for the second half because we already showed that at 2-0 the game is not done. We were too static in our passing, kept the ball too long in the wrong moments and then passing too late, [so] the guy who concedes the pass is under pressure. Everything changed – not because the boys wanted [it to] only because they did it because they lost a little bit of concentration. But still, 2-0 at half-time, it was clear something can happen. The penalty, of course, changed the game a little bit. We scored the third one, a wonderful goal, and then it happened quite quickly again. We opened the door, but Bournemouth had to run through and they did it. Of course I’m not happy with the result. There were not a lot of moments where Bournemouth could get confidence, but when there was the moment they were immediately there. The atmosphere was really good. Eddie was on fire – even after 3-3 he pushed the boys up. We had our chance and then they scored the goal. It’s a wonderful story if you’re not on the wrong side. Today we were on the wrong side. That’s what we have to accept. We have to learn from it and we will do, for sure. Then everything will be good again. But in this moment it doesn’t feel like this, of course.
On being more philosophical than angry…
I’m not angry. During the game, I was angry a few times, when I still had influence on it. I saw in the moment that it’s not that you really want to do the wrong thing – I know my boys well enough – only you do it and it’s a little bit too late and you lose the momentum in the game. It’s not too simple to come back. That’s why you have to keep the momentum all the time or as long as you can. That’s where I tried to help. But now it has happened, I cannot change it anymore so why should I be angry? The guys didn’t want to lose, I saw it. They worked hard enough. But we were not clear enough in the right moments and a few things in the game we had no influence on. The penalty was, of course, very important. On the other hand, there was a situation where there was a clear foul on Roberto or Divock – holding, second yellow card, thank you. Without our influence, there could have been a few situations differently, and then we are on the better side with the same game. But we need to accept that there’s no coincidence that it happened today. We had a big impact on the result on the good side and on the bad side. That’s it.
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On whether the result raises any concerns over his side’s character…
No. We have no attitude problem. We have no character problem. Nobody is born as a winner; it’s not in the first few months of your life that you are a winner, you need to learn it. We came from position nine last year and there was a lot of criticism, a manager change, blah, blah, blah, and now we try to be much better. In all these ways, it’s always clear something like this can happen. You don’t like it, but you know it already before – but when it happens, it still feels bad. I would say you know about the problems in life, it’s easier to handle them – I knew that it could happen, now it has happened and now we have to deal with it.
On whether he was concerned by Karius’ performance…
No. If you made mistakes, you get criticised – that’s the life and there is absolutely no problem. If you have quality, you will get stronger from it. I respect and accept everything you will say about us today and if you want to say we are blind, silly, not good enough, whatever, do it. It has no influence on what I think about my team. You can write it, you can read it, and then we go on. That’s all. Of course we made mistakes today. If we don’t finish, if we miss chances, [does it mean] we don’t have good strikers? No, we have good strikers. The last goal [Nathan Ake’s] was not the most lucky situation for a goalkeeper. If Loris had made a real, decent save, I would have wished for it but it says nothing about him as a goalkeeper. It only happened and now we go on.