Klopp slams sloppy defending

JURGEN Klopp slammed Liverpool’s sloppy defending after Everton won at Anfield for the first time since 1999 with a 2-0 victory in Saturday’s Merseyside derby. Klopp’s side were punished for mistakes at the back by Ozan Kabak and Trent Alexander-Arnold. Kabak was caught out by Richarlison for Everton’s third-minute opener and Alexander-Arnold conceded the 83rd-minute penalty converted by Gylfi Sigurdsson.

LIVERPOOL — Jurgen Klopp slammed Liverpool’s sloppy defending after Everton won at Anfield for the first time since 1999 with a 2-0 victory in Saturday’s Merseyside derby. Klopp’s side were punished for mistakes at the back by Ozan Kabak and Trent Alexander-Arnold.

Kabak was caught out by Richarlison for Everton’s thirdminute opener and Alexander-Arnold conceded the 83rdminute penalty converted by Gylfi Sigurdsson.

Liverpool have lost four successive leagues games at Anfield for the first time since 1923 and Reds boss Klopp had no excuses for the troubled champions’ latest flop.

“It is (tough to take), but we conceded this early goal which was completely unnecessary and have to defend it better,” he said.

Klopp was also frustrated by Liverpool’s failure to take the chances that came their way in a typically frantic derby.

“We had to chase the game and did it well creative wise, we created some in the first half and even more in the second half, but we did not finish our situations off,” he said.

“We made one mistake in the first half and they used it, I don’t like to talk today about the good stuff because we lose the game and we feel that deeply, I have to use it tomorrow and it is our lifeline to keep going. We have to improve on the finishing stuff and then we will win football games.”

Liverpool have now lost four in a row in the league and sit three points adrift of the top four after a first defeat against Everton since 2010. Missing out on Champions League qualification would be an incredible fall from grace after they won the title for the first time in 30 years last term.

Meanwhile, Tuchel remains unbeaten in seven games since replacing the sacked Frank Lampard last month.

But the German endured some of the same frustrations that Lampard suffered earlier in the season as the Blues domination of the ball created little, while one slack moment defensively cost them two points.

On-loan Liverpool midfielder Takumi Minamino did his parent club a favour by opening the scoring with a cool finish after sitting down Edouard Mendy and Cesar Azpilicueta on 33 minutes. —