Mason Mount’s goal three minutes before half-time proved the difference on Thursday night as the Reds slipped to a fifth consecutive home defeat.
Read on for a summary of Klopp’s post-match press conference...
On his assessment of the game…
Intense game, tight game, one very decisive moment decided the game - the individual quality of Mason, if you want, in that situation decided the game. It was a ball in behind our last line, cut inside and in the end we don’t defend in the right space because these quality players, they go inside and they want to shoot from there so we don’t have to be on the six-yard box, we have to be there where he wants to finish it off. I think we were not there and that’s the goal we conceded, and our situations we didn’t use. That’s pretty much the explanation for the result.
On what he says to his players in moments like this and having the job to lift them…
Yeah, but not tonight, not tonight. I will try to be as honest as possible. I told the boys what I saw tonight.
On what he told his team after the game…
OK, it’s not that we go for any kind of excuses in these moments. So, I think that these games are decided in moments and were always like this and to get these moments back you have to fight, and in some moments you have to fight in a different level as well. That’s what I told the boys. In these moments it’s not about tactics or something like that, it’s then really about being resilient, it’s about heart, all these kind of things. I don’t say the boys didn’t show heart, I know what they invest and all these kind of things but we talk about the last [and] decisive two, three, four per cent and it will never happen that we will start blaming or whatever the circumstances. That’s just not the case, we had a good team, a really good team, tonight on the pitch and played in a lot of moments good football but not in decisive moments good enough. There is only one person or group to criticise for that [and] that’s me and us. That’s what I told the boys.
On the substitution of Mohamed Salah in the second half…
I am happy when the boys are disappointed [to come off], that’s not a problem. I could have changed other players as well, that’s true, but the reason for the substitution was he looked in that moment like he felt the intensity really and I didn’t want to risk him, that’s all. That’s the situation. It’s really rare, I have known him now long and usually Mo looks really surprisingly fresh until the end. He didn’t look fresh anymore and I thought that’s a sign in our situation, I didn’t want to risk him. That’s it.