Jürgen Klopp on City draw, Lallana chance and top-four battle

The Reds took the lead early in the second half at the Etihad Stadium as Gael Clichy’s challenge on Roberto Firmino was penalised and James Milner calmly scored from the spot.

Sergio Aguero levelled the game on 69 minutes with a close-range finish, before both teams created further chances to score – including a brilliant opportunity for Lallana.

In the end, they had to settle for a point apiece, which leaves Liverpool in fourth place in the Premier League table with nine fixtures remaining.

Here is a summary of Klopp’s verdict on the game at his post-match press conference…

On whether he felt the Reds could have won…

I feel better [now]. I thought the whole time that everybody around me was so excited, but not in the dressing room actually – they felt a little bit like I did. The wonderful piece of football we did that Adam couldn’t finish, unfortunately, that’s what brought this situation. But, of course, I know Sergio Aguero could have scored once or twice. [There were] a lot of penalty situations in the game. I cannot change it, there could have been a red card around Sadio’s situation, he was away and then Otamendi could catch him. But the summary of the game is positive. It’s very good, of course. It’s the way you have to play against good sides; it was intense, we defended well. We had some problems but we came back, we took the game, we were the better side and they came back. We gave them the opportunity to score and they did it. That’s how it is. It’s not that I’m not satisfied; it’s more that actually, I expect things like this from us. That’s it. I cannot run around after a draw against Man City. But, of course it’s a success. It’s good if you get a point here in a game like this. If you can perform like this, that’s positive too. I’m fine.

On his assessment of the overall game…

City [showed] how strong they are and how good they are, it’s really difficult to play them. But again we did well. So, am I proud about the performance? Yes, of course. But maybe I’m a lucky guy and I’ve had a few nicer moments in my life. It’s a good moment, actually. It’s very important for us that we again gave this sign to all the people who are interested in us that we can really perform like this. It’s really not easy, otherwise all the teams would do it. The lads did really well, so I’m fine with this. I can change it, maybe I’m not right, but I thought we would have deserved to win a little bit more. But it’s all OK, I have to accept different and I’ve had absolute worse results in my life. So I’m really OK, nobody has to worry about me.

Nice game to watch probably but on the sideline it’s really hard work. And on the pitch, it’s outstanding hard work and obviously it was really hard work for both teams because in the second half, I don’t know exactly when between, but… 55-70, we recovered with the ball, they recovered without the ball. I thought in these 10 minutes ‘Come on, close the game’ and we had the chance, Roberto Firmino [shot to] the side of the goal. Then, of course, Adam’s opportunity; in this moment, with a lot of kilometres in your legs and we played football like this, that was really cool. Sadio, it was not a chance but if he can touch the ball once then he’s away again. All these situations, I cannot forget them. That’s it. But at the end, I can still remember Sergio Aguero, six-yard box, [shot] in the sky – that happens not too often. It was good. More and more, I feel it. I needed a few minutes, that’s all.

On Lallana’s apology for his miss…

Obviously he’s one of the best – if not the best – player, technical-wise, I have ever worked with. If he couldn’t [score] in this moment, I thought it was because he worked so hard before. The goalie was quite impressive for City today and maybe he made a good movement or whatever, or he [Lallana] was surprised that we played football like this because we hadn’t 20 times before that. It was good, but that really can happen. Immediately after the game, Adam said ‘sorry’ to me and I thought ‘why?’ – but now I know why he thought he had to say sorry. But he didn’t have to because his performance was outstanding again.

On Emre Can’s performance…

Good. Again, good. We’ve said it already, he had these calf problems and not a lot of players would have played in these moments. We were always in really close and intense talks about whether we could leave him out or whatever. There were one, two or three games where we could do it, but now we can’t. It’s how we said, we had these injury issues and that makes it difficult, but now it is good and he can perform like this today. He was very important, very aggressive and very clear in all challenges. He got maybe one or two fouls [given against] him, but there were much more on him. It was a good game, of course. The story around Emre is really only a public story, we don’t feel it like this – we are completely convinced, he is convinced, I am convinced and in the end, it is a completely normal thing, we will talk about things and it [a new contract] will happen or not – and if not then it’s a normal thing too. In this moment, it is completely all good.

On battling for a top-four finish…

We are still in a battle, that’s how it is. It’s a really important sign that we can already do this. We have to improve – in a game like today, we have to improve and in all of the other games, we have to improve. I know a lot of reasons why we couldn’t and, as I said, it’s a long-term project and if I wake up every morning and think, ‘Oh my god, we lost the points there and there’ it wouldn’t make it better so I don’t do it. I am really focused on the moment. If I think about something then it’s about the future, the rest is done with the analysis. Everybody knows, four points, five points, six points matters. We’ve spoken already about all the games, where we lost them and all that stuff – but is it allowed to think like this? No.

The next game is against Everton, they have come from behind [in the table] and it is quite impressive, so it is not only a derby, it’s another very important game. Now we will send the boys all over the world to their national teams, hopefully they come back healthy and then we will go again. The problem is, if you do something like this [draw at City] usually it is really positive, but in our case it is not only because it means we could have done better in the other games. In a few of them, yes, but not in all of them because of different reasons. There is one outstanding side this year – an outstanding and consistent side – and they will be champions probably. That is then well deserved and all the rest fight with all they have for the Champions League. We are one of these sides and that’s good. If you do it, it’s a success and if we don’t do it, we will be disappointed, but we would not stop working and would not stop believing in this project. We are really convinced about the circumstances we have and we want to use it.