Liverpool abject in defeat

LEICESTER — Jurgen Klopp admitted that Liverpool’s poor performances and results against teams in the lower half of the Premier League table is happening far too often.

Liverpool returned from a 16-day break with a hapless display at the King Power Stadium as they fell 3-1 to Leicester City on Monday night.

Two goals from Jamie Vardy and a wonderful strike from Danny Drinkwater gave a manager-less Leicester a vital three points in their quest for Premier League survival, while Liverpool’s hopes of securing Champions League football suffered a massive blow.

Klopp’s side have lost five times in the Premier League this season — losing to Burnley, Bournemouth, Swansea City, Hull City and now Leicester.

“It was not good enough in the beginning, it was not good enough in the middle and it was not good enough in the end,” Klopp told a news conference after the Leicester defeat. “I think it was 100 percent clear what happens here tonight from the Leicester side —back to the roots, the line up was clear.

“It was clear how emotional the game will be because if Leicester doesn’t show emotion tonight then that would have been really strange.

“It was not that intense but we were not even ready for this. We tried to be absolutely ready for the first second but, obviously, we tried not enough, with the wrong tools or whatever. The first goal looked like a friendly game — a player down, a throw in, a header and one pass.”