Press conferenceJürgen Klopp on Nunez red card and draw with Palace
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The Reds were held to a point for the second successive game to begin the Premier League season as Luis Diaz cancelled out Wilfried Zaha’s opener.
Diaz’s scintillating solo effort came just moments after Klopp’s side were reduced to 10 men due to Nunez’s dismissal for a clash with Joachim Andersen.
Read the manager’s verdict on the events of the evening below…
On his view on Nunez’s red card…
A little provocation here and there – and definitely the wrong reaction. A clear red card, I cannot deny that. Yeah, he will learn from that. Unfortunately, he has now a few games’ time to do so. That’s not cool for us in our specific situation, even less, but that’s how it is.
On it being the first sending-off for violent conduct of his tenure at Liverpool…
There must be always a first time… it doesn’t make it better.
On his assessment of the Reds’ performance on the night…
Really good. I told the boys after the game I’m proud, and I am – that’s what I feel. A lot of things happened during the week and then the game started like it started, I loved it, that was the game we wanted to play. Of course we wanted to finish the situations off but I think we did extremely well and then in the box with a lot of legs and bodies they blocked, I’m not sure, seven or eight shots in the first half already. That’s a special number so we were obviously on the right path and if we carry on like this it was a matter of time.
But unfortunately then they scored the 1-0, which I think was the first counter-attack? I think so. Everything was in place for that moment, so we had good protection actually; we had Fab and Trent around Eze, we had two-v-one in the last line as well. Unfortunately, Eze can free him there and then the space is pretty big, with the speed of Zaha and a good finish. In that moment they showed actually how good they are and how difficult it is to play against them, because these moments always can happen and it didn’t happen too often.
At half-time, positive, I told the boys we should go back to the way we started the game, that would be ideal; we need offers, we need the speed, we need the direction, these were the moments where Palace struggled, we caused them problems. We need to pick up as well second balls in these moments and go from there. I thought the start was positive again and then the red card happened. But obviously the best possible reaction from Lucho then – worldie, wonderful goal. And from that moment on it was a special game. That was us at home with an incredible atmosphere. Unfortunately, without a goal, which is not easy.
But I think the way we played – and you all watched a lot of football games with 10v11 and it’s not common that you put a team as much under pressure as we did. But we did and that was good. So, now we have a point more than before the game. I can imagine what kind of articles and headlines and commentaries that leads [to] but that’s life. So, we will go from here.
On whether he will speak to Nunez in the coming days…
Yeah, of course I will speak with him. I came in and I wanted to see the situation; in the game I couldn’t see anything so I didn’t know what happened. I saw Andersen on the floor and Darwin walking away, that was my picture. I asked then our guys already and I saw only, ‘OK, red card’. And then I saw it – yes, it is a red card. Wrong reaction in the situation. Andersen wanted that, I would say, and he got it. But he made a mistake, Darwin, so of course we will talk about it. But not yet.
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