Klopp admits Liverpool played 'really bad game' as streaks fall in Leicester loss

Jurgen Klopp acknowledged Liverpool played a "really bad game" in a 1-0 loss to Leicester City on Tuesday that ended several long goalscoring streaks.

The Reds struggled to create chances after a first-half penalty from Mohamed Salah was denied, and they conceded in the 59th minute to Ademola Lookman.

The defeat kept Liverpool six points behind Manchester City at the top of the Premier League table as their title hopes took a major blow.

What has been said?

"We played a really bad game, so it was well deserved [to lose]," head coach Klopp said to Amazon Prime.

"Our decision-making [was poor], maybe a little bit of luck [was missing]. That’s how it is. We should have had more of those moments. We had enough to get the win, but if you lose you need more of them.

"I think we started OK, then we completely lost our rhythm and didn’t get it back. From then we forced it, so there’s nothing else to say. The circumstances too – Leicester played two days ago, they deserve it, absolutely.

"You could see it coming a little bit. They had one shot on target. They didn’t have plenty of chances. We should have defended better. We do that usually, why we didn’t do it today is hard to explain. There were so many performances before normal level, there’s no explanation.

"It’s a big gap [to City]. In this moment it is not my problem. If we play our normal football, Liverpool football, we have the chance to win more football games."

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Centre-back Virgil van Dijk added: "There's no point looking at [Manchester City] or Chelsea or the other teams around us. We should look at our performance today and improve. We all wanted to do better. That's a fact. We weren't good enough and they deserved the win."

End of goalscoring streaks

Liverpool failed to find the net in the Premier League for the first time since March - a stretch of 29 Premier League games dating back to a 1-0 defeat to Fulham.

They also ended 2021 in the same way they started it, failing to score in an away match. The Reds had netted in each of their last 28 matches on the road in all competitions between these two games (75 goals in total).

Next up on the fixture list is Chelsea - widely regarded as one of the best defensive units in Europe.

Further reading

• Norwich fans to Gilmour: 'F*ck off back to Chelsea!'
• Man Utd 'bunch of whingebags' vs Newcastle - Neville
• Barcelona announce €55m Ferran Torres transfer