City defeat was no catastrophe – Klopp

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has urged his players not to view the defeat to Manchester City as a “catastrophe” as he believes some of the football they played would have served them well in this inconsistent season.

The lopsided look of a 4-1 scoreline was due to two uncharacteristic errors by goalkeeper Alisson Becker but Klopp was keen to take the positives from a performance which left them 10 points behind the leaders, with their Premier League title defence seemingly in tatters.

Liverpool’s players trained yesterday but have been given today off and Klopp will send them home having extolled the virtues of what they did well against City and told them not to dwell on the result.

“We have training, we have recovery and all that stuff. Tuesday will be off. I prefer that (Monday) we speak again about it in the right manner, that we have the day off then with the right mindset,” said the Reds boss.

“I don’t like it too much but it happened from time to time, if you are then at home we all think our own stuff, we think, ‘Oh my God, it’s a catastrophe’.

“There are worse things in the world than losing a football game. For us, it is very important, no doubt about that.

“But I want them to understand and to know the football we played in long periods of the game, if we would have played this football more often then we would have more points.”

Klopp is trying to remain upbeat.

“It is not the last game of the season so there are a lot of games to come.”