Big Sam says Toffees deserved their point as Klopp blasts spot-kick award
HE came, he claimed, he “mastered.” Sam Allardyce believes the efficiency of Liverpool’s shot count in the Merseyside derby reflected gallantry in Everton’s performance and ultimately explained their draw.
Wayne Rooney’s penalty, late in the second half, arrived despite Liverpool’s dominance. Despite chances to extend the margin of their lead following Mohamed Salah’s superb opener, Everton continued to hang in there. “Whatever anyone says, Liverpool had a huge amount of possession more than us but only had three shots on target compared to our two,” Allardyce said.
“That shows you how much we mastered a great side today in terms of their goalscoring ability. That had to be our first port of call if we were going to get a result. And we mastered that brilliantly today.”
The awarding of a penalty for Everton was a controversial moment, with Allardyce believing Dejan Lovren’s decision to place an arm across Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s back a mistake. Jürgen Klopp, meanwhile, had a very different view.
“I’ve had a look at it on the laptop,” Allardyce said.
“You don’t put your hands on the forward when he’s in the box; don’t mess with him; don’t touch him; don’t push him.
“If you do, you run the risk. There was no need to do it. He could have stood up and shepherded it away from goal where he was going. He didn’t. He put his hands on him and pushed him over.
“People can call it soft or whatever you want to call it. But you don’t do those sorts of things in the box anymore as we know. The credit goes to Craig Pawson, giving it at Anfield. He was very brave.”
It was, indeed, only Everton’s second penalty at this ground since 1937.
It left Klopp in a bristling mood.
Having responded indignantly to a question from a Sky reporter with the response: “Can we please stop this? I am not in the mood. I only want to talk to people with some understanding of football,” he took a straw poll amongst journalists to establish how many agreed with Pawson.
“I don’t think it was a penalty,” he insisted.
“He doesn’t push him, it’s just body contact. This happens in midfield lots of times where there are no decisions.”
Allardyce admitted Klopp’s call to only use Philippe Coutinho and Roberto Firmino from the bench gave his team a boost before kick-off. Klopp has successfully navigated Liverpool’s busy schedule by rotating his squad in recent weeks but this was an occasion where the result suggests he got it wrong.
“Everton players worked really hard tonight but there was nobody brilliant,” Klopp reflected. “That’s how it is sometimes. We worked really hard. It’s a derby. We tried everything, we had clear chances, half-chances, everything you need, but didn’t use them.”
“When we don’t win the games, I take the blame — no problem with that,” he concluded. “We could have won it. We didn’t. Blame me.”