KLOPP: THE DAY MY PLAYERS RESORT TO FOOTBALL’S DARK ARTS IS THE DAY I’LL QUIT SHOT DISTANCE: 27.2 y
ANOTHER lead had been squandered, another opportunity had been missed. To do it once is an accident, twice could be viewed as careless, but five times?
How different Liverpool’s season would look if they could see a job through to the end. Think of the games: Watford, Newcastle, now Chelsea. Both matches against Sevilla. That’s six Premier League points gone and Champions League progress in the balance because they cannot get across the line.
The best teams know how to do it. Run the clock down, kill the contest. It might not be pretty but pretty doesn’t secure prizes or meet objectives.
Don’t Liverpool need to be more streetwise? Jurgen Klopp greeted the question with a furrowed brow. He then, firmly, clarified his principles.
‘The day when somebody thinks like this (in my teams) — with not being a proper sportsman and being fair — then I stop,’ said Klopp, after Chelsea had pegged back his Liverpool team when Willian’s freak 85th-minute chip cancelled out Mohamed Salah’s opener.
‘If it’s not OK any more that we try our best, then something is wrong.
‘I watched a game (on Friday) and the players were on the ground, on the ground. You didn’t know what they were doing. That’s not my kind of game. Yes, you have to be smart and clever in different situations.
‘We try to close games down — but we don’t do it in a cynical way. We don’t do it like, “Oh, sit down again! This player is kind of walking!” You have seven minutes overtime then. If you stay on the ground, and there’s no whistle, what happens then? They go on playing.
‘With an English referee, they do what they want. The British referees? You never know. So stay on your feet when you hear the whistle.
‘We didn’t think about (time-wasting) at all. We didn’t do it at the moment with the Adam Lallana substitution. We only thought, “Come on! Change! Tell them!”’
Klopp and his assistant, Zeljko Buvac, were figures of arm-waving fury when what appeared to be an attempted cross from Willian drifted over Liverpool goalkeeper Simon Mignolet. The managerial duo confronted fourth official Craig Pawson and remonstrated to the point where they could barely speak.
THEIR rage stemmed from a delay in getting Lallana on, after he had spent a few minutes stripped before finally joining the fray in the 89th minute.
Klopp believed the match officials were at the root of Chelsea’s equaliser but it later transpired Pawson had asked Liverpool’s manager six times if he was ready to make a change.
The complaint seemed churlish. Chelsea, for whom Eden Hazard was magnificent, deserved their draw. It would have been easy for them to wilt in the final 15 minutes, having fallen behind to Salah’s strike, after their tortuous journey back from Azerbaijan on Wednesday.
‘We’re happy we got a point but we could have had three,’ insisted goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois.
But Chelsea did what they do best, digging deep and refusing to buckle. They showed the spirit and mentality of champions and the point was celebrated by Antonio Conte as if it were a victory, as he roared ‘Come on! Come on!’ to the away fans.
‘We want to fight every game, we want to improve and I think we are trying to build something important for the present, but especially for the future,’ said the Chelsea boss. ‘You must have passion. When you see this type of performance, you must be pleased.’
Klopp certainly has passion but doubts over his team’s mental strength persist. It is all about fine margins at the top and Liverpool are being held back because they are struggling for clarity in the defining moments: five lost leads in five key matches proves that.
‘Having a 1-0 lead against Chelsea is no lead, it is only a little information,’ Klopp argued.
‘It becomes a real result only in the moment when the final whistle goes. That’s pretty much like when you are against us 1-0 up. So that is completely different (to Sevilla when they drew 3-3 after leading 3-0).
‘If somebody wants to think in that way, I cannot avoid that. But I don’t for a second have the impression that it is a psychological thing.’
SUPER STAT: Liverpool have conceded only two goals at Anfield in the Premier League this season but each of those, against Burnley and Chelsea, has cost them two points. LIVERPOOL (4-3-3): Mignolet 6; Gomez 7, Matip 6.5, Klavan 6.5, Moreno 7.5; Milner 6, Henderson 7, Coutinho 6.5 (Lallana 89min); Salah 8, Sturridge 6 (Wijnaldum 66, 6), Oxlade-Chamberlain 6 (Mane 89). Subs not used: Karius, Firmino, Robertson, Alexander-Arnold. Booked: None. Scorer: Salah 65. Manager: Jurgen Klopp 6.5. CHELSEA (3-5-1-1): Courtois 7; Azpilicueta 7, Cahill 7, Christensen 7; Zappacosta 6 (Willian 83), Drinkwater 6 (Fabregas 74, 7), Kante 8, Bakayoko 5 (Pedro 77), Alonso 7; HAZARD 8.5; Morata 7. Subs not used: Caballero, Rudiger, Moses, Luiz. Booked: None. Scorer: Willian 85. Manager: Antonio Conte 7. Referee: Michael Oliver 7. Attendance: 53,225.