KLOPP: IT’S NOT GOOD BUT WE’LL STRIKE BACK
JURGEN KLOPP could not explain why his Liverpool side were so bad in their defeat by Southampton and conceded that they were lucky not to be out of the semi-final already.
The Liverpool manager, however, insisted that after Loris Karius saved their skins with a series of brilliant saves, they can take Southampton back to Anfield and ‘strike back’ to progress to the February 26 Wembley final.
Having been grilled on television, he was asked if he knew why it went so badly wrong.
Klopp replied: ‘I tried already — three, four times now, in other interviews, but I cannot make it better, whatever I say.
‘After we conceded one goal the game changed. Even if I try to explain it, it’s not that easy. I’m actually not used to a reaction like this from my boys but they have to accept that tonight it was not good. We did not have a lot of chances, maybe Roberto Firmino in the first half, one or two other moments. We had a lot of moments in and around the box where we could have had a chance but we didn’t make anything of it and that was the situation.
‘So the performance, of course, doesn’t feel too good. That’s how it is but for the final, I would think it’s still open. In this moment, you have two disappointed managers after the game; one because he lost and the performance wasn’t good and the other because he only won 1-0 and has to go to Anfield afterwards.
‘So that’s how it is. We will strike back. We will be a different team. Everything will be different at Anfield. For us it’s still possible to go to Wembley and that’s the target.
‘If you don’t win and you don’t draw, losing 1-0 is the third best result. I don’t like it too much but it’s still possible (to go through) and this team always shows a reaction.
‘We have to show a reaction against Southampton but it would be cool if we could also show a reaction at the weekend against Manchester United because we probably need a better performance to get something at Old Trafford.’
In a bizarre moment in the 57th minute, Klopp handed Daniel Sturridge a note and the striker had to hare over to Dejan Lovren to show him, then sprint over to find Adam Lallana to show him, too, before returning to his position up front and discarding the piece of paper.
Klopp explained it was to outline a ‘new system’ — a switch to a 3-5-2 formation — and added: ‘ Maybe it was a little bit too late. We gave him the paper when the game was already running again, that was our mistake.’
Southampton manager Claude Puel admitted: ‘There is a little frustration at the end having had this many possibilities to score.’
But defender Virgil van Dijk said: ‘We won and we kept the clean sheet, which is the most important thing. Liverpool are a great team but it was a great team performance.’
Goalscorer Nathan Redmond said: ‘I should have had four goals but we take it on to the second leg. I will learn from those mistakes and try to put it right in training.’
Puel left out club captain Jose Fonte after the defender handed in a transfer request and added: ‘We will see over the next days about the possibility of Jose leaving or not.’