Jurgen Klopp has said that he has mixed emotions following Liverpool’s draw with West Ham, admitting that Liverpool are unstable in defence because of their attacking intent
Liverpool lost further ground on league leaders Chelsea after a disappointing draw against West Ham United. Slaven Bilic’s side have been struggling severely in the Premier League this season, but took advantage of some more poor goalkeeping from Loris Karius and an uncharacteristic error by Joel Matip to snatch a draw at Anfield.
Karius was at fault for the first goal after getting his positioning completely wrong for Dmitri Payet’s free-kick. Matip, who confirmed earlier this week that he had turned down a call-up to the African Cup of Nations, misjudged the flight of the ball – a deflection didn’t help – to allow Michail Antonio to sneak in behind Liverpool’s defence and put the ball past Karius, who once again was hesitant to come off his line.
Speaking after the game, Klopp admitted he had mixed emotions about the draw.
“Yes it’s a negative thing that we didn’t win, but it’s still a point so it’s kind of mixed emotions. Being one goal down in a game against West Ham with their style of play, with their situation in the table plus the quality they have usually – it is really difficult to play against them.” he said, according to the club’s official website.
“1-0 up and all good. Then a little bit too excited I would say, we had not a real formation for protection in these moments, nearly everyone was involved in our offensive situations, we had exactly two centre-halves and sometimes Hendo behind the ball, all the rest were on the other side so it was a little bit a problem with second balls after, but not too often actually. “
Klopp also confirmed that Dejan Lovren had picked up a hamstring injury, and hoped that his early withdrawal was enough to ensure he is not out for too long :
“He said he had a cramp and in the ear of the medical department, it was a hamstring issue. It was in the region. Dejan wanted to carry on but we cannot take a risk in this situation. Hopefully we took him [off] early enough.” he said.
There were some positives for Liverpool, as Divock Origi put in yet another impressive performance and Adam Lallana was impressive as well. The duo scored a goal apiece for Liverpool, and will give Klopp confidence given his team’s injury problems.
The fact that Mane also soon departs for the African Cup of Nations might not be as big a blow as first thought if Lallana can stay fit and Origi continues to perform like he has since coming breaking into the starting XI again.
Last night’s result meant that Liverpool are now 6 points behind league leaders Chelsea, with Arsenal cementing their place in second with a 3 point lead.
