Jürgen Klopp looks tired as he steps in front of the television cameras on Wednesday evening. His Liverpool FC has just lost the city derby against Everton FC 0-2, meaning that in the fight for the championship the team is dependent on mistakes from rivals Arsenal and Manchester City. The coach had “nothing good” to say about his team’s performance: “It just wasn’t good enough, that’s the truth.”
Even after the first leg of the Europa League quarter-final against Atalanta Bergamo, which Liverpool lost 3-0, Klopp no longer had the energy to protect his players as usual. “With a lot of performances today I thought oops, wow,” he tried to put his disappointment into words after the game: “That was really bad!”
Klopp: “You can read the table yourself”
In the crucial phase of the season, Liverpool are depriving themselves of their remaining chances of seeing off Klopp with titles in the summer. Liverpool won the not overly prestigious League Cup in February, but they have since been eliminated from the FA Cup and the Europa League. So all that remains for them is the Premier League, where Arsenal and City have better chances of success because Liverpool only drew against Manchester United in April and lost to Crystal Palace and Everton.
“We need a crisis at Manchester City and Arsenal and have to win all our games,” said Klopp, when asked about the championship, with more than just an undertone of resignation: “I don’t know why I should answer that, because the table can read it for yourself.”
Against Everton, the Liverpool team’s recent weaknesses became visible once again. Both goals conceded came from set pieces, even though “everyone knows that that is their strength,” complained Klopp. The second goal conceded in particular – a header from Dominic Calvert-Lewin after a corner – left the coach perplexed: “A routine that they have used all season, and he is still completely free. That doesn’t make any sense.” A statement that doesn’t indicate a lack of preparation for the opponent, but rather a lack of concentration on the pitch. In this case, right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold was responsible for allowing Calvert-Lewin to jump to the ball unhindered.
The attack has been the heart of Klopp’s exhausting, full-throttle football in recent years. In both the 0-1 defeat against Crystal Palace and against Everton, Liverpool created numerous chances to score, but missed them, sometimes unluckily and sometimes miserably. Like in this scene from Wednesday evening: Minutes after conceding the first goal, Liverpool center forward Darwin Núñez is free in front of the opponent’s goal, but shoots hard at goalkeeper Jordan Pickford from a few meters away instead of resting and pushing the ball past him to the left or right.
Of a total of 23 shots on goal that Liverpool took, only seven were on target and none went into the goal. “We created massive opportunities and didn’t take any of them,” Klopp said afterwards, searching for words: “I’m not angry about that. Am I disappointed? Yes. It’s crazy.”
In order to display external content, your revocable consent is required. Personal data from third-party platforms (possibly USA) may be processed. Additional Information .
Enable external content
When Jürgen Klopp announced in January that he would be stepping down as Liverpool manager this summer, he weighed his words with similar caution. “It’s because I… how should I put this? I’m running out of energy,” he said in his video message to fans. He also emphasized that he wanted to “squeeze everything out of this season” before saying goodbye after almost nine years. To win the 2019 Champions League, the 2020 championship and the 2022 FA Cup, his team played the often-quoted “heavy metal football”. But as it looks now, the final chord won’t really fit in.