ReactionJürgen Klopp press conference: Liverpool 0-0 Manchester United

The Reds had 34 shots during the Premier League encounter at Anfield on Sunday afternoon but were unable to find a breakthrough and forced to settle for a point.

Read on for a full transcript of Klopp's post-match press conference…

On his assessment of the game...

Let me say, besides the result, I have a lot of positives about this game. You could say the decisive part, the scoring part, obviously was not there today. Maybe one or two were a bit unlucky and in other moments not calm enough, a bit too much in a rush.

But the start in the game was the best we had this season, the counter-pressing was the best we had this season, the intensity was outstanding and the amount of finishes is outstanding. But when you have this amount of finishes, you should have a few more on target – that's another point which was obviously not great. And the goal, if we would have scored it whenever, it would have changed everything because they were obviously not here to lose somehow and they really wanted the result. They fought hard for it and credit to them.

So we just had to keep going and try pretty much everything. We changed system, brought [on] fresh players and everything could have worked out if we just make this one better decision. We were really unlucky with the Trent finish, I would say. I think Onana didn't even react on that because it just didn't make any sense because if the ball rolls in, it's in – but it rolls on the wrong side of the post. Ibou, if he is more often in these situations, I think he could've scored there. And other situations when we finished, when we took the shot. I have to watch it back because in the moment my feeling was we have to take the overlap – you use the overlap or we have to use a player who would have probably been free in the centre.

Because the way United defended was with a lot of passion. The way we played disorganised them quite frequently but, in the end, we didn't see that because then they were deep in the box and then they just throw themselves into the balls and the shots. If a team defends like that, there's always a free player because rather two than one wants to block the ball, so it means somebody else is probably free. We didn't see that and that's why we drew the game.

On Dominik Szoboszlai...

Might have had two or three games ago where there was a slight development from the first impression he made obviously. It was always clear that things will not go like this – he's still a very young boy. But he was exceptional today in a lot of situations in the game. But then we lost a couple of balls and it had nothing to do with the substitution or whatever, it's just you have options to do it and we wanted to change system and then you have to think. We wanted to have Joey then higher, put him proper on the wing – same for Kosti – so you need players in these half-spaces and it was then Cody right, Lucho left and Mo putting in the centre, and then we changed again with Harvey on 10.

That's the thing, it's just we play a team that play man-marking, so each little tweak can make a massive difference if we use it. And actually, we were there, we had these moments when we passed the ball to the outside, if we then find the overlap – the overlaps were there in moments – and we then shoot the ball to the outside of the net instead of letting them make a mistake. If you bring that ball in the six-yard box, it's super-difficult to defend because there are a lot of legs and it can be a Man United leg who brings the ball over the line. These were the moments where we were not really there and that was the problem.

I said, if we score an early goal, it would have been great, it would have changed everything. We were ready to use that but we didn't and then it becomes more and more intense. It was a really tough game and then they have their counter-attacks – which obviously I would say avoid that with the quality they have still for 90 minutes. That would have been really insane. So, they had their moments but not even close to what they could have had because of the counter-press, so I liked that a lot. There are a lot of good performances – it was actually the last part. I said it before, in the moment when we scored these four screamers against Fulham, I knew that one day we will sit there and think, 'Ah, you better would not have shot, you would've passed.' So, it's completely normal.

That we are in a rush, you see then with the quality of the shots. Because these boys are able to do insane things from distance but today they [were] probably the easiest saves for Onana pretty much because the ball rolled in his arms, so that shows the technique is not there – not because you don't have it but just because you rushed the moment and that's it.

On how he views the Premier League title race...

I couldn't really be interested, to be honest. I am happy we are in the area where we are and I don't know why we open that discussion, this bottle, this early. It's December, it's the toughest period of the year. Everybody has to get through it somehow, everybody has to dig really deep to get through it. When you are in the cup competitions still then that makes life not easier. Arsenal have a week off, we play midweek against West Ham, which is not a friendly game obviously – it's a quarter-final. That's all tough.

So, get through this and open your eyes again in April and have a look where you are and then I am more than happy to discuss that, absolutely. I am not nervous or whatever because we didn't win today or stuff like this, but we all have to learn again to deal with the situation. It's like nobody expected us there, I didn't think about it. I thought it was possible, but didn't really think about it. So, now we are where we are and now we have to make sure we don't make any negatives out of that – that in a game we think we maybe should have already done this or should have been already there.

We are exactly where we belong because of the performances we had. Really, I mean it, you can discuss and write whatever you want and I honestly mean that, it's just I don't really understand it. If you talk about us and say the performances in moments are not that convincing, that's my job to see the areas where we have to improve and we know that. Of course we can improve and now we are in a situation all of a sudden where you are really disappointed – which we are – when you draw against United. That's a bit strange but that's how it is. It's all OK, we are in the position we belong and from here we go and we will see.

We have our injuries as well – nobody speaks about our injuries, but we still have them and it doesn't help, especially with the amount of games. It will be really tough. My boys for me today looked like they are really ready just to give it a proper try and then we will see what that means exactly. For today, if you take the right things out of this game then this was a super-important game because, as I said, the counter-press was the best we've played with this group. We had to come back a couple of times for different reasons; tonight we were spot on from the first whistle, which is really important as well. That's all positive, but when you are that intense and then make the right and calm decisions in the decisive moments is another step. We will see what we can do in that department.