We were lucky Man City weren't in a greedy mood — Klopp

We were lucky Man City weren't in a greedy mood — Klopp

Faruq Ibrahim 16:14 - 01.04.2023

Jurgen Klopp confessed Manchester City could have scored more after his side's 4-1 defeat.

Although Manchester City ran riot against his side, Jurgen Klopp believes they could have conceded more and were only lucky City were not in a mood to open a more embarrassing win margin. 

Pep Guardiola got the better of his longtime rival, thumping them 4-1 to temporarily close the gap on Arsenal to five points.  

Liverpool suffer embarrassing defeat

var widgetLoaderConfig = widgetLoaderConfig || { CDN_URL: 'https://widgets.sportal365.com', APP_LINK: 'desktop', API_URL: 'https://africa.football.api.sportal365.com/', API_KEY: '2f852b4de2f3a5cf3188e74b33087bb4:2c18422f8e826a7d11aeed52edb2449e', LANG: 'en', REQUEST_INTERVAL: 30, ENABLE_BET_SLIP: false, AUTHOR: false, THEME: "light", TOURNAMENT_ORDER: "pulse_nigeria", LINK_OPTIONS_V2: { 'player' : { 'url': '/football/player/{playerId}' }, 'team' : { 'url': '/football/{teamId}' }, 'tournament': { 'url': '/football/competition/{tournamentId}' }, 'match': { 'url' : '/football/match/{matchId}', 'sort': { 'criteria': 'alphabetically', 'direction': 'asc' } }, 'configuration': { 'newWindow': false }, 'standings_tournament': { 'url': '/football/competition/{tournamentId}/standings' } } }; if (!document.querySelector('script[src="https://widgets.sportal365.com/loader.bundle.min.js"]')) { window.setTimeout(function () { let scriptCss = document.createElement('link'); scriptCss.href = 'https://www.pulsesports.ng/css/sport-widgets.css?v=1668785443'; scriptCss.rel = 'stylesheet'; scriptCss.type = 'text/css'; document.body.appendChild(scriptCss); let scriptTag = document.createElement('script'); scriptTag.src = 'https://widgets.sportal365.com/loader.bundle.min.js'; scriptTag.defer = true; scriptTag.onload = function () { window.setTimeout(function () { new SMPWidgetsLoader(widgetLoaderConfig); }, 200); }; document.head.appendChild(scriptTag); }, 0); } else { new SMPWidgetsLoader(widgetLoaderConfig); }

Mohammed Salah's finish after a spectacular counterattack gave Jurgen Klopp's team the lead in the 17th minute, dealing the first blow to the visitors.

Julian Alvarez's close-range tap-in gave City an equaliser ten minutes later. Just after the half, the home team took the lead when Kevin de Bruyne connected with a Riyad Mahrez cross in the 46th, and then Gundogan extended their lead with a goal in the 53rd.

Kevin de Bruyne grabbed City's second against Liverpool
Kevin de Bruyne grabbed City's second against Liverpool

With roughly 15 minutes remaining, Jack Grealish added the finishing touches, ensuring that City would win 4-1

Klopp: We were lucky 

His team were 4-1 losers, but Klopp felt it could have been more, pointing out the cardinal sins made by his players.  

The German tactician analysed his team's loss, saying he thought they were good in the first-half and that although City had more of the ball, his team had their moments and defended well. 

Jurgen Klopp in the dugout for Liverpool against Manchester City
Jurgen Klopp in the dugout for Liverpool against Manchester City

He thought his team started to struggle when they failed to properly defend against Man City's double pivot of Rodri and John Stones and double tens of Gundogan and De Bruyne.  

For the goal that gave City the lead in the second-half, he thought his team left too much space behind and a counter happened, and for Gundogan's goal that made it 3-1, he faulted his players' efforts, saying although they had an overload on the right side, they did not put in any real challenge to win the ball.

Klopp thought the city controlled the game and his players, while the opposition did whatever they wanted. Hence, he believed they could have gone down by more goals. 

“I think we saw what we expected in the first half, a dominant City side with us organised, had our moments,” Klopp said, according to the BBC.

“When we played we were really in the game and caused them some problems as well, scored a wonderful goal. We had another big counter-attacking moment where we could have played it better.

"So 1-1 at half-time. We can show the boys what to do, where to defend them because the key areas are clear. 

“If we don't defend the double six we have a real problem. If we don't defend the double 10 - Gundogan and De Bruyne - then it is pretty much impossible because the pitch becomes too big.

"We concede this first goal with I think an open ball in midfield where we don't even have a challenge then we are too deep and the counter-attack happens, great play. 2-1.

Jurgen Klopp on the touchline during the Premier League match at the Etihad Stadium, Manchester.
Jurgen Klopp on the touchline during the Premier League match at the Etihad Stadium, Manchester.

"3-1 we have a massive overload on one side, should win the ball but don't even have a challenge. These kind of things cannot happen. But they happened and after that... wow! 

“We just had to follow as they did whatever they wanted. We were lucky they weren't in a greedy mood.”

Liverpool travel to Stamford Bridge next to face Graham Potter's side before hosting Arsenal at Anfield next weekend.

Related content