Jürgen Klopp's verdict on Liverpool draw at Newcastle
Jürgen Klopp conceded Liverpool were again left to rue missed opportunities as they were held to a frustrating 1-1 draw by Newcastle United at St James’ Park on Sunday.
The Reds took the lead courtesy of a trademark Philippe Coutinho blast from distance, but were pegged back when Joel Matip’s attempted challenge deflected the ball off Joselu and into the back of the net before half-time.
However, the visitors again carved out enough openings to clinch all three points, with Daniel Sturridge, Mohamed Salah and substitute Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in particular going close to edging them back in front.
Afterwards, Klopp reflected on the stalemate in his post-match press conference. Read on for a summary of what the manager had to say.
On his general reflection on the game…
I thought we were the more active and the better side; we created more chances. Clear chances which we usually should use. If you are dominant you can’t avoid each counter-attack. You have to avoid that they make something of it. I cannot imagine one situation when they had a chance off a counter-attack. It was a good goal from them, a good pass in absolutely the right moment. For me it looks like the centre-halves didn’t see the ball with Shelvey because two or three players were in front of them and then the ball was there. If they see it they have to make a step and then Joselu is offside.
On rueing missed chances again…
Yes, for today of course it feels not too cool as you can imagine. I played a lot of times with different teams in my life really badly and we’ve got a point. Afterwards it feels like you’ve won a point, but you know you have a real problem because you have to play better next game because otherwise you will not get a point. We do it the other way around. We are the better team again, we create more chances again, we are in very promising situations and then we don’t score. That’s of course a problem but it will not stay like this. I know, I’m long enough around football to know that there will be one day when the knot opens and maybe then we’ll score more times than once, that’s pretty likely.
On Liverpool’s record of one win in their last seven games…
We create, we play good, but obviously we don’t score in these moments but there are different ways to get one win in seven. You can play really bad and lose a lot of games or you play in a few games really, really good - I’d say in most of the games actually we were the better side - but a few chances are enough for the opponent to score, and we need a lot more and have at the end the same number of goals. That happens too often of course in the last few weeks, but the only alternative for us is to carry on.
We have to do it like this, we can’t say we won’t try it from now on and get more passive, come here and be the counter-attack team and hope that something happens - I don’t think that is the right way for us. Now it’s the international break and the boys will go away and we all feel not perfect at the moment… you have a point but you feel like you’ve lost. I hope they all come back healthy and we will go again. In the next game we will probably have different problems, not like today, against [Manchester] United, [who are] full of confidence and stuff like this.
But we force ourselves in quite a good shape and in a good situation. I think it’s really difficult in a game like today against a very well organised Newcastle team to create these moments with more confidence and not only one win in seven, but three in seven or four. It’s more natural. We have to do a little bit too much to earn these moments but when we’re there, usually we use these. But if we would stop doing this then I would be concerned but as long as we do it like this I’m not concerned.
On whether his players have lost confidence…
No, no drop in confidence. It is our duty to be confident because the boys have quality, we need to play football. You can imagine that when you try and try and try and it doesn’t work, it’s not easy. Phil scores a goal of the month, we made one mistake I would say, I’m not sure who was responsible but we made this mistake - unlucky, 1-1. They made a lot more mistakes around the situation with Daniel Sturridge, they missed the ball twice or whatever, Daniel shoots immediately, Daniel with two goals already in the season takes the ball and asks the goalkeeper where he wants the ball, then puts it in the other corner. Then Mo Salah is coming, the goal is completely empty now, unfortunately he doesn’t take his chance and jumps and shoots the ball over the goal. What’s my job now? To tell them ‘Mo, don’t do that next time’ and ‘Daniel, please have a look next time’? No, they know that and they will do it, 100 per cent.
On whether he’s concerned at being seven points off the top of the table…
I cannot talk about our football and the points we get for it, then talk about us and the gap between the other teams. We are having obviously our hard moment, and other teams will have theirs in the season. It’s pretty rare that the season is going like this [smoothly] so there will be hard moments. We need to work on our things and I really think that we are not far away from [being] a real challenger. If we do what we are good in, then we’ll score more goals and we’ll win games. So we don’t have to think about other teams, we’ll close the gap - how big it is - and then we’ll see where we end. It’s all about our own situation, not thinking about where the others are.