Jurgen Klopp told his Liverpool players “if you press 80 per cent, you better not press at all” after their 1-0 home defeat against Crystal Palace.
Eberechi Eze’s early goal condemned Liverpool to their first home defeat of the Premier League season and completed a damaging week for the club following last Sunday’s 2-2 draw at Manchester United and a 3-0 home loss to Atalanta in the Europa League.
Klopp lamented the fact his side were “always too wide” in the defeat to Palace and questioned his side’s pressing during the game.
“We had moments which didn’t end up in front of our goal, where we were just not together,” Klopp said.
“Let me say it like that, if you press 80 per cent, you better not press at all because it makes no sense. We had here and there.
“Curtis (Jones)was really going for it, following through, besides that first line which was too far away from each other, no one pulls, (Alexis) Mac Allister and Wataru (Endo) couldn’t do it and the last line was too deep as well.”
Klopp said his side allowed Palace too much possession in the first half, meaning his side “had to run in the wrong direction” and “could not gain any momentum” but believes the performance improved after the break.
The defeat ensures Liverpool stay third in the Premier League table, two points behind leaders Manchester City, but behind Arsenal on goal difference only after Mikel Arteta’s slipped to a home defeat against Aston Villa later on Sunday.
Asked what the result meant to Liverpool’s title hopes, Klopp replied: “The answer is pretty easy, if we play like we did in the first half, how should we win the league? If we play it like in the second half, we can win football games.
“If we can win football games, we will see how many we can win and then we have to we have to be around when the other guys struggle, if they struggle.
“For us we have to win games anyway. We have now a string of away games, that would have been tough anyway, it will be tough but we know that. We have to deal with that, and that is the easy thing, now there is nothing else.
“The criticism in these moments is completely fine, it is absolutely right. It is all about how we deal with it. The first half, we didn’t deal with it in particular but in the second half, we pulled ourselves together and should have won the game.
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“We lost the game in the cup (against Manchester United) and it was like a catastrophe because we were that good and lost it anyway and then we drew there (at United last week), were really good but drew it anyway. That is now not the reason for today, just a few weeks back anyway, but you asked for a few weeks.
“The problems we had in the United game were completely different to the things we had today. Yes, the goals we concede are too easy. That is a general thing. I said what I said about the game today.”
Liverpool return to action on Thursday with the second leg of their Europa League quarter-final against Atalanta in Bergamo, before facing Fulham away on April 21.
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(Nikki Dyer – LFC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
