Goals from Sadio Mane and Salah, which sandwiched Roberto Firmino’s penalty, looked to have been enough to earn a win on the opening day of the Premier League season at Vicarage Road, but Miguel Britos equalised deep into stoppage time for the Hornets.
Read on for a transcript from Klopp’s post-match press conference…
On his feelings after the game…
In football life, it makes sense to be really self-critical and that’s what we are of course, but in the end if you do everything on the first matchday, you cannot expect perfection. You have to fight for a result, you have to use the things you create and you have to accept a few things for this day, but to use it for the next game and try to work on it. Everything is different in a league game than a pre-season game. I was not happy in the first half with the situation; it was very physical and Watford were too often the winners in these situations.
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They didn’t create too much with it, but scored two goals. The first one, in our specific situation everyone will say it was clear because it was a set-piece, but it was a good cross and a good run. One of [our players] didn’t close the gap so he could not run. We have to work on it, no doubt. The second goal was unlucky and a formation problem. Alberto lost the challenge, which can happen obviously – maybe it was a foul or not, I’m not sure – there was a gap open, they played a pass and I thought it was offside, I’m not sure if it was. They passed the ball in our box, we defended the first time but then struck the ball against our own legs so that makes it a little bit unlucky.
We had more chances, especially after set-pieces, with very good crosses, good headers and they were lucky in these situations and we were extremely unlucky. Then we scored two wonderful goals in the second half, it was really good, we had our moments and then we conceded an offside goal. That’s really not fun, it’s difficult to accept. It feels not too good, but we know we can do better and have to do better – that’s what I told the boys.
On Salah…
He was involved in the penalty, scoring a goal, even though it was for sure not the most difficult goal of his life because it was a perfect ball from Dejan, fantastic control from Roberto, a sensational chip, and then he’s there to finish the situation, which is nice. In the beginning everyone could see he struggled a bit against Holebas, a really strong man, he was a little bit too much on the wing, things like this. We spoke about it at half-time and second half was much better. We need offence in behind with the speed, not all the time but if we can do it in another space then it’s easier for us to play football there. So yes, I am fine with his contribution.
On defending set-pieces…
I’m not fed up [of talking about it], I have to talk about it. If you want to sum it up to this then that’s the only thing you saw and that’s absolutely OK. We defended most of them really well and in the end is it enough if we concede one goal? Of course not. I think we had two minimum [of the] same big chances off the set-pieces and they defended them with luck. Do they then have no problem with set-pieces and we have still a big problem? I’m not sure. We have to work on it, but that’s my life, our life, in football. For us, different things are important: physicality in the beginning, not ready for these things.
That can happen on the first matchday, we have to adapt to these things. No direction in the game first half, much better second half. Yes, play football, good, but it led to nothing. We had our moments in the first half, three or four good chances, is that enough for an away game? I would say yes, we need to be happy with this. Sometimes you have less and you need to be happy with it. We have one point and I wait for the moment when it will feel better. I saw a lot of good things and now we have to prepare for the next game.