After suffering a humiliating defeat of 0-4 at the hands of Manchester City in their first match since winning the first Premier League title after 30 years, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said Thursday’s result did not have anything to do with their league victory.
“It has nothing to do with last week, to be honest. It hurts like defeats hurt. What I wanted to see tonight was a team who is ready to fight against Man City, who obviously had, I’m not sure if it’s the right saying, a point to prove or whatever. They had easy motivation for Pep, let me say it like this and then the decisive moments, City used and we didn’t and that doesn’t help,” Klopp was quoted as saying on the official website of Liverpool Football Club.
City played a perfect spoilsport in Liverpool’s Premier League party and hninted at their intention to regain the title next season as they went 3-0 up in the opening half itself to hand The Reds their third league defeat in 71 games.
Reflecting on the team’s mood after this unwanted result, Klopp said, “The attitude was good, the game was not bad – we lost 4-0, but what kind of reaction do we show? Do we show that we use the chances or whatever? That’s what we want to do of course but it has nothing to do with the game tonight.”
He added, “In a game against City there are decisive moments and these decisive moments we have to use, and we didn’t and they did. If you see the goals, two or three of them were counter-attacks; they are good in counter-attacks obviously, but it’s not something which usually happens against us. It means we lost the ball in the wrong moment, where protection was not as it should have been and they have exceptional quality.”
Even though Liverpool still have a lead of 20 points at the top, their hope to break City’s record of 100 points in a single season took a major blow. The Anfield-based team are now stuck with 86 after 32 matches.
City began the evening by offering a guard of honour to the Premier League champions for their meticulous football in the league this season. The Reds have won 28 matches, drawn two and lost two this season.
“If anybody thought before this game that the quality gap between Liverpool and Manchester City is 20 or 23 points, I cannot help these people. Football is not about that; football is about winning games and we did that in a pretty impressive manner. I saw, I think, pretty much all of City’s games and even the games they lost were good, unbelievable. It is the truth, it is not that they didn’t perform or whatever. They had then the moments when the opponent scored – and that was tonight the case,” the German manager explained.