Jürgen Klopp on draw with Burnley, Coutinho and defending
Jürgen Klopp insisted Liverpool's performance against Burnley merited more than a 1-1 draw but accepted that his side have to improve after a challenging week.
The Reds had 35 shots to the visitors’ five at Anfield on Saturday, but could only find an equaliser from Mohamed Salah following Scott Arfield’s opening goal.
Read on for a transcript of the manager’s post-match press conference.
On the amount of chances Liverpool created…
That’s why I’m still not in the perfect mood, I would say. It feels strange, it feels wrong, but it’s a fact – we drew. A lot of parts of the game I was really happy with. We made seven changes but it was still really fluent, it looked like proper football – offensive football, dominant football, possession football how it should be. We created moments. You cannot create in each situation a finishing situation, but we did it absolutely often enough. It could have been more often, of course, because with one better decision here or there then we would have had a few more. But it was the best game against Burnley since I’m here, obviously not result-wise but performance-wise for sure.
[We were] unlucky, I would say, in and around the penalty situation. For me, it’s a penalty, I cannot change this even when I saw the pictures back after the game. We still had the chance to score but unfortunately we hit the crossbar. Obviously fortune didn’t wear a Liverpool shirt today. I don’t want to ignore that they had two headers at the end of the game; that would have been typical a little bit for us if they would have scored in these situations. It was a very disciplined performance of the opponent, and also disciplined of my side. This one goal, that’s where we have to improve most, to switch the mood in being offensive, being offensive, being offensive – do, do, do all the time – and then this one situation, a little block here and we missed Arfield, or forgot him, and he can score then. So it doesn’t feel good.
On Philippe Coutinho…
He needs rhythm. We didn’t want to change him, it looked a little bit confused when we brought the subs on because I asked him and it was a thumb up. When they got drinks in a little interruption, he said ‘OK, it’s only cramp, but maybe better to stop’ and we had to change this.
On whether the Reds could have done better with the goal they conceded…
Yes. Could Trent have won the first headed challenge? Yes. Then the block on Joel, it’s difficult to do better because the defender cannot do it exactly the same because then it’s a foul. I’m not sure if it was already in the box but for sure around the box. He did it in 500 other situations really well. Raggy was there to protect the situation but the ball bounced in the wrong direction, it’s difficult to judge. Robbo knows he could have seen Arfield earlier. That’s how it is. He goes in between; it was a bouncing ball, they are quicker and they are more used to these situations, they do it more often. That’s what they are working for. He hit the ball perfect, it was not even that he needed a few touches. It was a good goal, absolutely, but we could have defended it much better.
On whether the last three results have made for one of his most frustrating weeks as Liverpool manager…
Result-wise, you are right, but honestly, as a person I’m not like this. If I can get over the few really, in my opinion, more than unlucky situations today then it’s my job to see the performance – and we reacted really well. Why we feel so disappointed or frustrated is because we all see what this team would be able to do. Seven changes and playing that kind of football – nobody should take that for granted, it’s pretty rare, so that’s good. Obviously we have quality and now we have to use this quality consistently, that should be the plan.
We have still space for improvement, that was clear before the season, but we could have won pretty much all our games so far when you think about the performance. That’s a very important thing, so we have quite a good form or shape. We didn’t win all of them and we lost one really high, but everyone who was there [saw it was a] strange game – it was not that we performed from the first second like you would imagine when somebody loses 5-0. Yes, we have to improve, but [there are] a lot of really positive things. Unfortunately, I still don’t feel any positivity in this moment, I am still in the 1-1 mood, but it is easy to see all the positive things from tomorrow on again. They are there. Now we go to Leicester, Leicester again, then we go to Moscow and then Newcastle and if we can keep the shape and improve the other things, I think everybody has seen already we can be really strong. We have to be strong, I know that, but we really can be strong.
On whether seeing results such as Manchester City’s 6-0 win at Watford compound his frustration at today’s draw…
No, how can I compare? Obviously they took a lot of confidence from our game, unfortunately for us, but it is like it is. We and all the other teams will have moments in the season when it is a little bit more difficult to go through. That’s completely normal. We should not compare with other teams. I understand and know the reasons why maybe a lot of people are doing that, but we have our way and it’s not the worst.