KLOPP RAGE AS BAGGIES BOUNCE
Record-equalling goal by super Salah is all in vain
HIS mood was unmistakable from the moment he walked into the room. Jurgen Klopp is an open book in terms of emotions and this, plainly, was not going to be a day for humour.
Liverpool’s manager had just seen a two-goal lead frittered away, resulting in two points being squandered in their pursuit of a place in next season’s Champions League. At the final whistle, Klopp had stomped on to The Hawthorns pitch and growled in the ear of Joe Gomez, who had made a mistake in the build up to West Brom’s 88th minute equaliser.
Klopp does not take kindly when things do not go his way. Gomez, the young right-back, may have taken the initial brunt but, as he settled into his chair in front of the cameras, there were plenty more targets for the German’s ire as he wrestled with the impact of Liver- pool taking a false step.
This, he acknowledged, was a game that should have been comfortably wrapped up after Danny Ings had opened the scoring and Mohamed Salah clipped in his 41st goal of a remarkable campaign, but Klopp was adamant that circumstances — and poor officiating — had intervened.
‘I think if you are the better team, you should win,’ said Klopp, whose side were pegged back by goals from Jake Livermore and Salomon Rondon. ‘We were the better team, we didn’t win. I don’t feel that that point will help West Brom massively.
‘It feels like a complete waste of points, they don’t need it, we would have needed it. They are all happy now, we are not happy. We stay in the league; they don’t stay in the league. It’s kind of a strange situation. I am a big football fan.
‘You have to do everything to create the best circumstances for all the boys to deliver. You let the home team decide if they water the pitch or not — it’s not only football. It’s also dangerous for injuries if the pitch is really dry.
‘To be 100 per cent, I would have said nothing about that probably if we had won. But it’s all what you see during the game. We are in charge, we try to do not a brilliant game, but for sure a good enough game to win here in a difficult situation. We didn’t have a little bit of luck and that’s why it’s a draw.’
Not quite. Klopp rightly grumbled about two key decisions — Ahmed Hegazi escaped a red card for throwing a punch at Ings in the second half, shortly after the striker should have been awarded a penalty after being bundled over by Craig Dawson — but it wasn’t all about referee Stuart Attwell.
Liverpool thought they could have won without engaging top gear against the Premier League’s basement team and, as thoughts began to drift towards Tuesday’s Champions League semi-final with Roma, they were caught out.
In the grand scheme, the ‘useless comeback’ — Klopp’s description — will not prevent West Brom from slithering into the Championship and their fate can be sealed as early as today, should Swansea take a point from Manchester City.
They are determined, though, not to surrender their place with a whimper; six days after shocking Manchester United at Old Trafford, West Brom upset the odds again, giving supporters who have suffered through a season of misery something about which to smile.
And do not underplay how miserable it has been: two managers sacked, impoverished football, financial calamities off the field and an incident in Barcelona with a stolen taxi that marked them down as a club without discipline. But here they were tearing into Liverpool, refusing to give up and harrying them to such an extent that Livermore and Rondon were able to secure what was just their fifth home point from a possible 21 in 2018. ‘It’s another good result because we as a football club have come together,’ said caretaker manager Darren Moore. The atmosphere was absolutely superb. Together we have earned that.’ Such a scenario seemed unlike when Salah clipped in in the 72nd minute to equal the record of 31 goals in a 38-game Premier League season — held jointly by Luis Suarez, Alan Shearer and Cristiano Ronaldo — and give Liverpool a two-goal advantage. Here was the latest head-spinning statistic from Salah but, for once, he was not going to be the story. The narrative seemed set to belong to Ings, who opened the scoring in the fourth minute — his first goal in the top flight since 2015. Ings had other chances to score — there was a header flashed over the bar and a one-on-one chance that Ben Foster denied him — before he became involved in the flashpoints that left Klopp seething.
Whether he would have been so furious had Liverpool held on is unlikely but the manner in which they folded in the final 11 minutes will have left the scouts from Roma — who beat SPAL 3-0 yesterday — aware of their vulnerabilities.
‘We agree (it should have been a penalty) and (agree about) Hegazi on Ings — it is a red card,’ said Klopp. ‘You see it, I see it, but that’s not important. It is only important what three or four gentleman with a whistle say about it.’ West BroM (4-4-2): Foster 7; Nyom 6; Dawson 7, Hegazi 6, Gibbs 6 (Burke 76min); Phillips 7, Livermore 6, Brunt 7, McClean 7 (Evans 71, 6); Rodriguez 6 (RobsonKanu 89), Rondon 7. subs (not used): Yacob, Myhill, Krychowiak, Field. LiVerPooL (4-3-3): Karius 6; Gomez 6, Van Dijk 8, Klavan 6, Moreno 6; Wijnaldum 7, Henderson 7, Milner 7; Salah 7 (Lovren 83), Ings 7 (Firmino 65, 6), Mane 6 (Oxlade-Chamberlain 65, 7). subs (not used): Mignolet, Robertson, Solanke, Alexander-Arnold. Booked: Moreno. referee: S Attwell.