KLOPP’S AGONY
We’ve lost our mojo, admits Reds manager
LIVERPOOL were battered in Belgrade last night to leave Jurgen Klopp questioning his team and admitting they have lost their way.
Klopp said that his side had ‘lost its mojo’ and, when asked to put his finger on what went wrong, replied: ‘I only have 10 fingers.’
They are top of their group on goal difference after Napoli and PSG fought out a 1-1 draw in Italy. Liverpool go to Paris next before finishing up against Napoli next month, but they are struggling for form with only three wins from their last nine games. ‘We have to do better,’ said Klopp. It looked as if Tottenham were also on their way to defeat at Wembley — and heading out of the competition — after trailing PSV 1-0. But striker Harry Kane threw them a lifeline with two late goals as Spurs claimed a dramatic 2-1 victory.
With Inter Milan drawing 1-1 at home against Barcelona, Spurs can still get through and face the Italians at Wembley on November 28.
FIVE added minutes had just flashed up on the scoreboard when Jurgen Klopp wearily turned his back on the action and trudged to his seat.
He had seen enough. Liverpool’s manager had spent most of the game with arms outstretched like a scarecrow, screeching his fury, but it had been pointless. Klopp’s team had been wretched.
As he sat down, his thoughts would have turned to how he can make sure Liverpool are not eliminated from the competition that means so much to them. One false move in their last two games, against Paris Saint-Germain and Napoli, and the Reds could be out.
Klopp, who made five changes to the team that drew at Arsenal last Saturday, was bewildered by his team’s lack of sparkle and energy.
‘It made sense to make a few changes, a few we had to make and a few we wanted to but it is easy to say it didn’t work out in the end,’ said Klopp. ‘We lost it because they went 1-0 up then 2-0 up.
‘I don’t say it isn’t already serious if we lose twice but we have to make sure it will not happen again. If we do, it will be difficult as the next game is an away game. The last one is a very difficult home game against Napoli. We will go for those two games 100 per cent.’
That is the reality following an abysmal 90 minutes in Belgrade, which ended with a superb Red Star side recording their most famous win at this level — thanks to two terrific, unanswered Milan Pavkov goals — since they lifted the European Cup in 1991.
Perhaps Liverpool thought it was going to be a formality. Klopp would never entertain that suggestion and the players would deny it, but this was a display that invited such stinging criticism.
The contest would surely have been different if Daniel Sturridge had snaffled the kind of opportunity in the 17th minute that you would expect him to convert with his eyes closed.
It was at the end of the one Liverpool move before the break that had any fluency. The ball went down the left, from Adam Lallana to Sadio Mane, and the forward’s cross squirted past Andy Robertson to Sturridge. His shot from six yards was high and horrible.
Klopp was startled by the miss and did a double take, while Sturridge was so aghast that he clamped his hands over his eyes. His constant head-shaking showed he was replaying it in his mind.
How costly it proved. Red Star, whose fans provided a relentless din of encouragement and intimidation, saw a chance to get a foothold in the contest and, with more than a little help from last season’s runners-up, they took it.
Their first goal arrived following a mistake by Virgil van Dijk, usually a figure of such calm and poise. He fluffed a clearance to Ben Nabouhane, whose shot from 20 yards was turned away by Alisson. From Marko Marin’s resulting corner, Pavkov plundered the first of his two goals.
Such was Red Star’s delirium at going in front that some of their backroom staff ran down the touchline and ended up in Klopp’s technical area, but any anger he felt was aimed solely at his statuesque defence.
If that was bad, worse was to follow. Liverpool’s midfield was getting overrun, but the feeble way in which Gini Wijnaldum was brushed aside after James Milner had squandered possession deserved punishment and Pavkov duly obliged.
With Wijnaldum frantically trying to get back into position, Pavkov held out his arm to fend off the Holland international and unleashed a shot that ended up in Alisson’s net before the keeper had even finished his dive. There is not much elegance about Pavkov, who is a big slab of a centre forward, but what he lacks in grace, he makes up for with power.
Liverpool had not come from two goals behind in a European game since April 2016, when they defied logic to beat Borussia Dortmund in the Europa League quarter-finals, but there was not a sliver of hope of them repeating the feat here.
Don’t be kidded by the fact they dominated possession in the second period and spent the last 15 minutes launching balls towards Van Dijk, who became a fifth striker at times.
If one moment summed up this abject Liverpool display, it came when the out-of-sorts Mane somehow passed the ball straight out of play, rather than down the touchline, while barely two yards from Klopp.
In terms of scoring chances after the interval, the best Liverpool could do was a cross from Robertson (56 minutes) that looped off a defender on to the top of the bar and a shot from Salah (71 minutes) that thudded off a post.
The manner in which heads dropped at that point was telling and Liverpool have now lost three consecutive away games in Europe for the first time since 1979.
Should that sequence be extended in Paris three weeks from now, the ramifications could be grave.
Liverpool’s history is littered with tales of recovery from adversity, but if they play like this again, their campaign could be finished. THE Wembley surface is threadbare, looking weary and devoid of its usual lustre. If only that was where it ended. Tottenham are not what they were either. They, too, have lost the gloss which made them special. This European campaign has wheezed and spluttered from Milan to London to Eindhoven and back. But at last Mauricio Pochettino’s team have won a game, albeit in a scruffy fashion having gone behind after only 61 seconds to a header by Luuk de Jong. They recovered thanks to two late goals from Harry Kane, the first a powerful shot after a penalty-area scramble, the second a header courtesy of a deflection off Trent Sainsbury. Spurs survive in the Champions League. Just. This was Tottenham’s fourth outing in nine days and Pochettino made six changes to the team which won at Wolves on Saturday. Dele Alli made his first appearance of the season in the Champions League and part of an adventurous formation which was at least partially forced on Pochettino. Paulo Gazzaniga’s first touch of the ball was to pick it out of his net in the second minute. PSV were straight on the attack to force a corner. Not for the first time this season, Spurs defended a set-piece feebly. On the edge of the penalty area, Alli lost De Jong, attempting briefly to pull him back by the shirt before deciding to let him go. His efforts to recover were foiled when he was blocked by Nick Viergever. By the time De Jong sprang to meet Gaston Pereiro’s corner he was all alone and easily placed a
firm header which offered Gazzaniga no chance. Tottenham summoned a positive response. Christian Eriksen fired wide and full back Angelino cleared from the goal line as Alli flicked with his heel at a header by Davinson Sanchez. Kane forced Jeroen Zoet into a save and Lucas Moura dribbled deep into the PSV penalty area before he was smothered by blue shirts. Zoet made a very impressive double save to deny first Eriksen and then Alli, although both efforts might have been finished more clinically. Ben Davies and Alli missed the target from distance after the interval but Tottenham kept plugging away and got their reward in the end.
TOTTENHAM (4-3-2-1): Gazzaniga 6; Aurier 6 (Trippier 75), Sanchez 6, Alderweireld 6, Davies 6; Eriksen 6.5, Winks 6, Alli 6; Moura 7 (Lamela 62, 6), Son 6 (Llorente 75); KANE 8. Subs not used: Vorm, Walker-Peters, Skipp, Sissoko. Scorer: Kane 78, 89. Booked: Son, Trippier. Manager: Mauricio Pochettino 7. PSV (4-3-3): Zoet 7.5; Dumfries 6, Viergever 6, Schwaab 6, Angelino 6.5; Rosario 6, Hendrix 6.5, Pereiro 6 (Malen 73, 5.5) ; Bergwijn 6 (Gutierrez 86), De Jong 7 (Sainsbury 81), Lozano 6.5. Subs not used: Room, Behich, Ramselaar, Mauro Junior. Scorer: De Jong 2. Booked: Lozano, Schwaab. Manager: Mark van Bommel 7. Referee: Ivan Kruzliak (Slovakia). Attendance: 46,588.