IT’S ALL OVER

Klopp concedes title race as Liverpool go 13 points behind City

JURGEN KLOPP has conceded the Premier League title after Liverpool suffered another dramatic second-half collapse to fall to defeat at Leicester.

Six days after they shipped four in 45 minutes at home to leaders Manchester City, they conceded three in the space of seven minutes late on to slip to a 3-1 loss. It is now four defeats in their last six league games and part of a longer run of nine points out of a possible 30 with the defence of their title lying in tatters.

Now they face a fight to finish in the top four with Chelsea and West Ham both able to overtake them if they win their games in hand tomorrow night.

The shell-shocked Liverpool manager admitted after yesterday’s game at the

King Power that the title had gone. ‘Yes, I’m conceding,’ said Klopp, in a lowered tone. ‘I don’t think we can close the gap to City.’

Instead his focus is shifting towards meetings with RB Leipzig in the first leg of their Champions League match on Tuesday followed by the Merseyside derby against Everton at Anfield next Saturday.

However, he has much to ponder after another horror show from his keeper Alisson, badly at fault for the second Leicester goal after a collision with new boy Ozan Kabak. Coming on top of James Maddison’s equalising free-kick, allowed by VAR when there appeared to be players stood offside in Alisson’s line of sight, it made for a mad spell as Liverpool lost control of the game.

‘Big parts of the game were really good today but we have to avoid mistakes, we have to avoid misunderstandings,’ said Klopp.

‘We can’t avoid mistakes of VAR, but the rest we have to. We were good enough to win the game for large periods, but not at the end.

‘Before the game we all knew Ozan is a really good player and we know that after as well. But he is not really used to all the things we do and when you play with Ali you know he’s quite offensively-minded and

comes out of his goal. It was a misunderstanding that can happen when you are new together. Usually these things happen in pre-season, but we don’t have that.

‘We are not worrying about the title. We are not silly. We have a tough game on Tuesday and then again on Saturday we have the derby. These are the things we are thinking about and if we still want to have a good season then we have to win.’

Liverpool have 30 points fewer than they did after the same number of games on the way to the title 12 months ago, but after an arduous campaign Klopp is not looking for excuses.

‘At the moment it’s tough,’ he added. ‘But the only way out of the situation is to play good football, fight and work hard. That’s what we will do, we have to. We’ll get the results and see where we end up.’

Former England defender turned TV pundit Rio Ferdinand believes Liverpool have lost their ‘authority’.

Liverpool could drop out of the top six after their third straight loss and Ferdinand reckons the reigning champions have become a soft touch.

‘I would be more concerned about the fact they concede and the team capitulates,’ said Ferdinand. ‘This team was one you talked about leaders, mental strength. They are anything but that at the moment. When that first goal went in they became a soft touch. There isn’t that authority anymore. Last season people were saying this is this one of the greatest teams to play in the Premier League.

‘They’ve got big long-term injuries. I don’t see it turning around dramatically. I think they will struggle to finish top four.’

Meanwhile, all was rosy for Klopp’s big rival Pep Guardiola, whose Manchester City dominated against Tottenham yesterday.

Guardiola said of the impressive 3-0 win: ‘It was well deserved. The way we wanted to play, the approach, was there.

‘ Tottenham have a special quality and when we have played them in the last two or three years away at Tottenham we played good, created a lot of chances, and they had two or three chances and we lost 2-0.

‘ So they don’t need anything to create chances. This is down to their quality. But we have a special way to play and it doesn’t matter, this is how we’re going to play, but we must be patient, patient, patient.

‘The first five minutes they were better, then the first time we arrive we score, which sometimes happens, and we went on to control the game, so yes well deserved.’