After giving West Ham a 2-0 victory at the Upton Park on Saturday, Jurgen Klopp was not happy with the loss and said that he was angry with the performance of the players and said that he expected more from them.
He will get a chance to assess his players very quickly in this busy schedule as Liverpool will travel to the Britannia Stadium in a traditionally tough fixture in the country for a League Cup semi-final.
This game gives the German a serious chance at silverware albeit a domestic one and will give the squad plenty of confidence.
Speaking to the media before the Stoke game when asked about the previous result, Klopp revelaed, “I only told the players three words after the game.
“But we [will] have to speak about it again, because it was not the worst game I ever saw in my life. The problem was that I saw what we could have reached, yet we got nothing.
“You can talk about good crosses or West Ham hitting the post, or bad defending by ourselves.
“But for the rest of the game we had the ball, we passed it, we were around the box and we didn’t shoot or pass in the right moment, we did not have consistency in our crosses and things like this. We could have won today, and we lost 2-0. That’s really not good.”
Liverpool looked poor throughout the game against the Hammers and never looked like scoring a goal. There was a lack of intensity in the side’s play and the German spoke about the need to improve on their performance.
Taking to liverpoolfc.com before the semi-final, Klopp said, “I don’t want talk about the intensity of the moment in the situation because we were fit, we were fresh. There was no problem with running today, no problem with fighting.
“I know about the situation but today it was only about the wrong start again in the game and we have to change this so we won’t see games like this.”
“We had our moments and we were back in the game and made immediate chances where we could score goals but we didn’t,”
“Sometimes it’s bad luck but sometimes because we were not clear enough in our idea. Today is like a summary of our problems.”
“Why do we have to concede goals like this? It’s really not necessary. And if [we do] then react please!”
“React, make the one goal, open the game. We fight, but only because the game woke us up and that’s not how it should be.”
Klopp was also asked about the rugged fixture list but the manager backed the players saying that they were not physically exhausted with continuous football but said that they were mentally drained.
When asked if the problems that the squad faced at the Upton Park were easy to deal with, Klopp replied, “If they want. I think we have done it until now.
“I don’t want talk about the intensity of the moment in the situation because we were fit, we were fresh. There was no problem with running today, no problem with fighting.
“I know about the situation but today it was only about the wrong start again in the game and we have to change this so we won’t see games like this.”
Ex Liverpool legend Michael Owen commented that the Belgian Forward Christian Benteke was at fault for the hapless performance of the Reds. The striker looked lonely leading the line for the Merseysiders on Saturday.
When asked on Owen’s comments, Klopp dismissed them.
“It’s not the game to pick one player out and talk about this,” the manager said. “I have no idea what he [Owen] spoke about, but take this from me – we could not do what we should have done at very precise moments, and that’s why we lost.”
This game is the third consecutive away fixture for the Reds and they will be hoping to go back to Anfield with an advantage to hold onto for the next leg.