Jürgen Klopp's verdict on Liverpool's defeat to Swansea

A quickfire brace by Fernando Llorente in the opening minutes of the second half stunned the Reds, after the first period had passed by without significant incident.

Klopp’s men responded strongly to the double setback and Roberto Firmino’s own brace hauled the hosts level and presented the possibility of securing a comeback win.

But a Swansea counter-attack saw Gylfi Sigurdsson sweep a decisive finish beyond Simon Mignolet to ensure the three points were taken by the visitors.

Here is a transcript of Klopp’s post-match press conference…

On his assessment of the game…

[In the] first half, obviously you could hear in the stadium it was not the most entertaining game. It was the job to do today. If you want to have a real spectacle on the pitch, you need two sides for it. In the first half, only we played, they defended. It’s not that you can create in each second a chance, but we had these four or five really good moments when we did really well. That’s what you have to do in a game like this, to change the situation in a positive way, [which] means you have a lead, 1-0 up, 2-0 up, whatever. That changes the game, of course. In this case, we couldn’t score and came out of half-time and then obviously you need to be spot on immediately and in the first minutes one of the decisive [moments] was that they even got the corner. It was a throw-in and we were too late, then not concentrated in the situation, flick-on and corner. We lost the first challenge after the corner and, until now, I couldn’t see how Llorente – who was the goalscorer – could be completely alone in the six-yard box and score the goal. Obviously it had an influence on us and them. Then they had their second chance in the game, we couldn’t avoid the cross, ball in the air – brilliant cross, brilliant header. That, I can easily accept. If something happens like this, I don’t speak about the mistakes around the header. But we should have avoided the pass and then the cross. That should be possible. The reaction was then very good; 2-1, wonderful goal, 2-2, wonderful goal, big chances, chance after chance. Then we had the punch that we missed a little bit in the first half, not only when we scored the goals, also when we created the chances.

Then the most disappointing moment, the third goal, nearly everything was wrong around this goal. I think it started with a long ball – that was not a real surprise, they played a few of these. The reaction on the long ball was not good. We strode back, we were there and we scored, then we obviously couldn’t switch in this moment to a defensive mood. That was the biggest mistake in this situation. We were passive. We win the ball and we could again create the next chance, but they took the opportunity and at the end Swansea players were in our box. That makes, of course, no sense. I don’t look for where is lucky and unlucky; it was obvious we had not that much luck today, maybe they had a little bit more, especially in defending. [There were] two or three situations where it was already done nearly and we could have scored again. We showed again that when we are really on track then we are a strong side and can create chances and score goals. That’s natural, if you want, and will happen. But the defending around all three goals was not good enough, 100 per cent. That’s a very important part of the game. It’s very disappointing today.

LFCTV GO: Watch Klopp's post-match press conference

On the result being Liverpool’s first league loss at home in a year…

I don’t care, it makes no difference. It’s not that I can say, ‘[It’s] OK, we didn’t lose for a long time’ – maybe we deserved to lose more than today and we didn’t, but today, it was a big opportunity for us to get these three points. That’s what makes it so frustrating. It’s not important how often you lose or whatever, it’s only this game – we are focused only on the next game and the next game. Today was Swansea and we gave them the opportunity to win the game and so they are deserved winners.

On how damaging the defeat is for the Reds…

I don’t know how much exactly. In Germany, that’s a pretty harsh word. If it has influence, then it has to be like this. It’s a few weeks ago we [last] lost in the Premier League and it has to feel really bad – and that’s what it does. I don’t need this feeling but now we have to, like always we have to use it – we have to show a reaction. It was not like we are in this situation and think everything is going well, we are really fighting. 2-0 down is not nice, but scoring the equaliser was fantastic so then it was clear who was on the run – but then it was really hard when we conceded the third one. It is our mistake – nobody else made a mistake, only us. Now we have to show a reaction.

On whether it was a lack of concentration for the third goal…

We weren’t in a defensive mood, it was attack after attack, rolling and rolling and rolling – that’s how the game was in this moment. The crowd was finally there, and the atmosphere was for winning Liverpool. In this moment, we had enough players around the challenges but nearly nobody in the challenges. That makes no sense. I saw no challenge, actually. We were two or three times too passive and, in the end, a free player in our box, that’s a big mistake. [It’s] not of one player, for sure not, [there were] a lot of players involved in this situation. But that this is possible against us, that’s really disappointing.

On Liverpool’s lack of punch in the first half...

It’s not a big problem, you have to say now, because it’s a 0-0 and you could see it was obviously difficult. It was very, very quiet in the stadium, but you need to play like this [patient], you cannot go always with the head through the wall. You need to play around, create and have a look where is the best pass through. We had these situations, we shot, we finished, we did everything, we had the headers – maybe it was a little bit offside, I’ve no idea, but the situation when Emre had a free header, that was brilliant play. But you cannot have it more. It’s not a problem that we didn’t have it. Of course, I could ask all the time for being spot on more than 100 per cent, but it’s pretty likely like this and you need this one moment and you score. Now, after the game, with five goals in the second half, a goal for my side in the first half would have changed the game completely, but the decisions were made in the second half today. And we are [on] the wrong side.

On whether the decision on Joel Matip came too late for him to start…

Yes, of course. We couldn’t [play him]. Yesterday night at 8pm [we found out], there was no chance. We had three sessions since the last game and we had to focus on the team we could play probably. There was no chance for him to start.