Manager Klopp slams referee after Reds loss
Jurgen Klopp blasted referee Craig Pawson for not giving his team at least one penalty as Liverpool failed to recover from Marcus Rashford’s first-half double blast.
He was angry about a handball by Antonio Valencia that was ignored, but even more furious about the challenge by United sub Marouane Fellaini on Sadio Mane.
“It was a clear penalty with Fellaini on Mane and in situations like this you need the right decision,” he seethed.
“Mane was through on goal and if he hadn’t been fouled he would have definitely had a shot and could have scored.
“We had a bad penalty decision go against us against Tottenham a few weeks ago and if we had got those two penalties my life would have been much easier. But it’s all about the result and we lost.”
The German admitted that his team could have done better defensively for both Rashford’s goals, but refused to criticise young full-back Trent Alexander-Armstrong for the first.
“We have to defend these situations better,” he said. “You can always lose a header or a challenge with Romelu Lukaku, but there is a gap in behind and we need to close that.
“We needed another player to cover Trent. It was not his fault.
“Lukaku is one of the best strikers in the world and we needed to be around to pick up the ball.
“We were not and Rashford could use the situation twice.
“The two goals made the game not easy. We had a lot of OK moments including two good moments in the first half where we could finish better but in the end we didn’t get the result.”
“We didn’t score before half time and then in the second half we chased the game. It is really difficult to do against a team like Manchester United.
“We had opportunities to shoot from distance but we were not good enough.
“It is very important now that we bounce back because we have no time to waste. We will keep fighting.
“We chased the game in the second half and caused them problems but this is a result game and they have the result and we don’t.”