Press conferenceJürgen Klopp's verdict on Manchester City 4-1 Liverpool

The Reds were beaten in the Premier League at Etihad Stadium by second-half goals from Kevin De Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan and Jack Grealish.

Mohamed Salah had opened the scoring in the contest and given the visitors the lead in minute 17, though Julian Alvarez netted an equaliser 10 minutes later.

Read on for a summary of Klopp's post-match press conference...

On his thoughts on the game and Liverpool's performance...

The obvious, I would say. The obvious, what everybody could see. The first half was OK, not just because of the result but because of the performance as well. Of course, City had more possession and these kind of things, but that always happens when we play here. We scored a wonderful goal, could have scored a second one in a really good counter-attack. Then, I would say the situation was rather unlucky when Kevin De Bruyne gets a touch on the ball and rolls through Robbo's legs. From there, of course City was doing really well. So, 1-1, that's OK, that's a basis, and then you come out of half-time there is an open ball in midfield and you don't even have a challenge. They pass the ball to the outside, we are too deep in the last line and from there, again, City are doing well.

You have to defend City in the moments where you have the opportunity to do so. If you are too deep, too passive or whatever, then they use that immediately. That was for 2-1... 3-1 [was] super-quick after, how I remember it, and I have to watch it back obviously, we have a three or four versus one situation against Grealish, but in the end nobody has a challenge and the ball arrives in the box again. They can finish by taking the rebound. Then you saw what happened.

We were not there anymore; we were completely open, we were too passive, too deep, too far away from everything. If you look at the game, I think we had around about four performances which were OK: the two midfielders with Hendo and Fab worked a lot, tried to close gaps, Cody especially in possession and Ali, of course, and then that's obviously very difficult. If you want to get something from here, then you have to play 11 players, 14, 15 players have to be on the top of their game and that was not the case again. So after being 3-1 down, it is anyway difficult to come back here. I think we had a situation for a 3-2 maybe when Robbo broke through on the left side, but then apart from that City could pretty much do what they wanted because the spaces were too big, and so we are rather lucky that they only scored one more. That's it now.

On whether he can explain why Liverpool started the second half in the manner they did...

No, I cannot. You don't know 100 per cent if the team started like this or a player started like that or whatever. I have no clue why we didn't have the challenge there when the ball was open. No foul, nothing, just no challenge. Really difficult to understand. When you let them on the ball and they can cut inside and pass the ball and use their speed and the formation and all of that, then it is not about mental stuff in that moment – you just try to sort the things you can sort. It was not possible there. No, I don't think it is really to explain, but we all saw what we saw.

On picking the players up to go again on Tuesday at Chelsea...

Yes, but we have to do that tomorrow. I told the boys now there is nothing from my side to say for tonight. Everything is obvious and everyone needs to think about it and then tomorrow we have to talk about it, but that was nothing for now. It is not a lot of time, but it is time – we don't play tomorrow, we play Tuesday. We should play better, especially more consistently. Being good while you're feeling good is OK, but not being good when you don't feel 100 per cent is obviously not possible in the Premier League.

That's what happens in the moment; we spoke about it in the press conference yesterday. Being 1-0 down this year changed pretty much everything for us. I don't like to mention these things, but I cannot ignore it as well. Again, today we concede two quick goals and, again, then it is super-difficult here – if not nearly impossible – to come back from a two-goal deficit, but you can make it a bit more difficult for them if you stick to the things you did in your good moments. That was not there anymore and that's why then the difference was so massive. It is not nice to be part of the team when the crowd starts [oles] with each pass. It is not nice, but it still happens from time to time.

On whether he has to pick himself up...

You don't have to worry about me. I watch things, I analyse things, then I go again. My emotions were never my problem. There are moments on the sideline where it is my problem, but not after a game. I know what I have to do but I have to make sure it arrives in the right places.

On what he made of the contributions of his substitutes...

Super-difficult coming on in a game like this. We are in the situation all together, I don't want to take them out of the situation but I don't think they were now the problem today. They didn't change the game, that's true, but that's it.