Klopp's verdict on frustration against United

The Reds turned in another energetic home display following on from the six-goal thriller with Arsenal in midweek, but on this occasion were not as clinical in the box.

That allowed United to stay firmly in the game and Louis van Gaal’s team snatched all three points when Wayne Rooney smashed home from Marouane Fellaini’s header onto the crossbar in the 78th minute.

Klopp said: “It’s a derby and in a derby you only have one job to do – you have to win it because that’s the only possibility to be satisfied after the game.

“I think if Manchester United were to talk about their performance, they’d say it was not that good but they won so they are really happy.

“We played better but feel really frustrated because of the result. Our performance and a lot of things we did today were really good. Creating chances was good, but the finishing was not good otherwise we would have scored a goal.

“The set-play was unlucky because we changed two positions for defending set-plays a few moments before. We didn’t avoid the cross, lose Fellaini, bar, lose Rooney – goal.

“Three mistakes around the goal, which is obviously too much against a team with the quality of Manchester United. Today there was not enough time to come back in the game.

“At this moment it is frustrating, how it should be, but we have to carry on and that’s what we’ll do.”

Liverpool’s attempts to break the deadlock were often thwarted by the reactions of United goalkeeper David de Gea, who notably clawed away a goalbound drive by Emre Can.

However, Klopp chose to focus more on his own players in continuing his assessment of the contest.

“I have not the best place in the stadium to talk too much about finishing – I’ll have to watch the game again,” said the manager.

“I know we didn’t score a goal, but I could not say whether De Gea touched the ball or not, it’s not always possible from my position. He’s man of the match, right? So I think he had a few good moments and that’s how it is.

“To be honest, I don’t care too much about the situations we had [where] De Gea could [make a save], I think more about the situations where we could have had chances and we didn’t because this move, this pass [was wrong].

“We had a lot of these situations in the first half and the second half, so we had our chances but we could have had more if we would have done this better.

“Altogether, he had a few good saves, we had some not-that-good finishes and they had one good finish – 1-0.”

Klopp was asked by one reporter at the post-match press conference about his decision to again field Roberto Firmino as the team’s focal point in attack.

He responded: “I think the smallest of all our problems that we had today was our centre-forward. Roberto Firmino again made a good game.

“He can play this position, he is a real centre-forward when he plays there. I don’t know who you would compare him with but we had no problem in this position.

“We created our chances and it’s too easy to say if we would have had a different player in this position he would have scored. We made a decision for this line-up and that’s not a problem in this moment.

“We have some problems but as long as we have enough players to play, I think we should not think about this. We played not bad! We had a good game against Arsenal, then we concede too many goals, today we played not bad so we are on a good way.

“But, of course, everyone can see it, we are all more satisfied if we have the result and we don’t have them often enough, that’s the truth.”

The boss added: “I cannot make the last push of the ball over the line – that’s not possible. But it’s my job to help them create chances.

“In this moment it seems to be not too easy for us. We can talk about this game but I don’t want to talk about common problems in football; because all teams have problems, some problems are different.

“What I can say is it’s my job to help them to more often come into clear situations where it’s easier for them to score goals.”