Klopp unhappy with Liverpool display

If you witnessed any of his wild gesticulating on the touchline against Watford yesterday you’ll know it doesn’t take a lot to interpret how furious Jurgen Klopp was at his players hugely inept performance.

Liverpool were dire across the board, somehow following up a late fightback against West Brom last week with a pathetic submission to a Watford side believed to be favourites for relegation at the start of the season.

To be honest, a better start could’ve provided a platform to work their way in to the game, but seeing the Reds commit another individual error (courtesy of Adam Bogdan) set the tone and the whole team weakly submitted.

And Klopp has not held back in making it clear that his players didn’t follow the pre-match plan.

Speaking at his post-match press conference (via Liverpoolfc.com), he said: “It was a bad start – and really not the best reaction to the start and not the best reaction to the goals. It was a very difficult first half.

“It was a better start in the second half after a few little changes and with a little bit of luck we could have scored a goal after half-time and the game would be open again, but we didn’t do it. Then a counter decided the game. That’s how it was.

“It’s the most disappointing moment in my whole Liverpool FC life. We don’t feel good today. We came here to do something completely different to what you saw.

“Between what we wanted to do and what everybody saw is a big gap – a big space – and that’s what we have to fill in the next few days for the next game against Leicester. Today, we have to accept the result and we have to work, keep on working and play better football.”

The Watford result represents a worrying dip in form since the thrashing of Chelsea, Man City and Southampton, with Liverpool not having won a game since progressing in the Capital One Cup.

Some may look to the misfortune of the opening goal, and Liverpool failing to benefit from any real luck themselves. And while Klopp himself feels the first goal shouldn’t have stood, he’s refusing to accept that that was the reason for the defeat.

He continued: “We lost our mind after the first goal. We lost our compact formation after the first goal. We didn’t play easy like we should have done. The pitch isn’t the best one, but it’s possible to play football – to play easy football.

“There was a little bit of wind and we have to use the wind and not play against it. That’s what Watford did with the second goal and we had the same situation in the second half with Divock Origi. They scored the goal and we didn’t.”

So, a fair bit of work to do ahead of the arrival of Leicester on Boxing Day and one or two players should really start looking at themselves in the mirror.