Jurgen Klopp has questioned the body language of some of his Liverpool players after their tenure as FA Cup holders ended.
A stoppage-time goal from Kaoru Mitoma sent Liverpool to a 2-1 fourth-round defeat at Brighton and Hove Albion on Sunday afternoon.
Harvey Elliott had given the visitors an early lead, only for Brighton to equalize just before half-time when a Tariq Lamptey shot was deflected by Lewis Dunk. And Klopp was not happy with the behavior of a number of Reds players, as their hopes of home silverware this season have been dashed.
“This is really a way to get knocked out of a cup competition,” he said. “If we’re in a better situation, ten points up in the league or something like that, and then you lose in Brighton, you say ‘respect’ because what they’re doing is really good.”
“But we are clearly in a situation where we want to take the last step. That’s why it feels very bad right now, because it didn’t happen. We took a step in the right direction but you can imagine nobody wants to hear it anymore, I can’t hear it anymore. But it’s still true. Then let’s start from there.
“We have to build on this kind of thing. We need to improve and some guys’ body language needs to be so much better.
Asked to elaborate on him’s point, Klopp said, “What else is there to say? If I talk about body language today it was not good, next time it should be better.
“Listen, I’m not thrilled with this performance. But again, the only thing that really happened was that we lost to a good team that we lost to in a terrible game. two weeks ago, today was much better.
“I understand 100% why people are unhappy with the game. But that’s just the situation we find ourselves in. There is no other way but to fight your way. You’ll never hear a manager in that situation say, ‘We’re going to change that and you’re going to see against Wolves and that’s it. ” You can not do this. That’s why we continue to work at 100%. “We still have room for improvement. We have taken steps, but we have to keep improving and we will. It is important that we stand up.
“We couldn’t have won the last game here, no chance. I was happy we didn’t lose more. But today, no one would have been surprised if we had won. It’s good, but for today and for the competition, it’s not enough.”