Jurgen Klopp says he didn’t know his players could play as badly as they did in the “really bad” 3-0 Europa League quarterfinal loss at Anfield to Atalanta.
Klopp didn’t play his best team on Thursday night because he left out Mohamed Salah, Luis Diaz, Andy Robertson, and Dominik Szoboszlai. However, the team he did start was still very good.
Fans at Anfield were shocked when former West Ham striker Gianluca Scamacca scored twice and Mario Pasalic added the third goal late in the game.
The match hasn’t ended yet; the second game is set to take place in Bergamo. However, it would take an amazing turn of events for the Reds to now make it to the semi-finals.
Klopp wasn’t trying to hide how bad his team played; he was only able to think of one good thing and said he didn’t know his players were capable of such a bad performance.
He told TNT Sports, “Unfortunately, there is nothing really good to say about the game.” “It was a good start.” Darwin Nunez had a good moment, but after that, the game got really bad, and there is nothing good to say.
I didn’t like how we were positioned tactically when we had the ball. We played badly. They played well, got three goals, and deserved to win.
“Monday is when I’ll watch this game.” I already know that we will be better if we do a few things better. Can we get it back? It is possible if we play well. Can we get a 3-0 win? I don’t know. But it hurts a lot, and that’s important. You did not do well, and that is how it is. That’s why we lost. At this point, it always feels like they’re done, but they’re not until we play.
“That doesn’t happen very often, so we need to respond right away on Sunday.” It must feel bad right now. The guys need to go home and sleep badly. Of course, we need to get ready for Crystal Palace.
“Oh my gosh, I didn’t know they could play that way,” I thought after many of the shows tonight. A lot of the time, it looked like a lot of the players were left alone. It was awful. In the end, we had the best chances, but we didn’t take them.
I know the boys can play better football, but they didn’t tonight. On Sunday, we need to show what we can do. That’s something I’m sure they will do.
Liverpool skipper Virgil van Dijk said, “Obviously it’s not great,” after their first home loss in 14 months. What a terrible evening it was. We were punished because each of us made too many mistakes. It’s not good.
“Of course it hurts.” It’s been a long time since we lost here. We shouldn’t take credit from them, though. They punished us because we were careless with the item. We still had a few chances to score, but we didn’t take them.