Buck up or City will run away, says Klopp
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LONDON • Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp has said his side cannot even think about being able to catch English Premier League leaders Manchester City, if they put in more performances like their below-par showing in a 1-0 defeat by Leicester on Tuesday.
The Reds slipped to just their second league loss of the season at the King Power Stadium to leave them trailing City, who beat the Foxes 6-3 on Boxing Day to make it nine league wins in a row, by at least six points from 19 games played.
That lead could stretch to nine as Pep Guardiola's men played Brentford away yesterday, while Klopp's men could also drop to third, three points behind Chelsea, with the Blues hosting Brighton on the same night.
"It was not our plan tonight to give City the chance to run away," Klopp admitted.
"If we play like tonight, we do not think about catching up with City.
"But if we play our football we can see what that means (for the title race). I don't have a proper explanation for tonight. To find one is my main concern, not how City are doing."
His side had a string of chances, notably a Mohamed Salah penalty. But the Egypt forward's second Premier League miss from the spot, along with some similarly poor finishing from others in red, left Liverpool frustrated.
Salah should have tucked home the rebound after his penalty was saved by Kasper Schmeichel, only to see his header ping off the bar, and substitute Ademola Lookman went on to score the winner from Leicester's single shot on target.
Klopp added: "Tonight, I didn't like a lot in our game so we have to do better. We just weren't ourselves."
With Leicester hamstrung by the absences of Harvey Barnes, Jonny Evans, James Justin, Wesley Fofana, Patson Daka, Caglar Soyuncu, Ricardo Pereira and Ryan Bertrand, the hosts were there for the taking.
But Liverpool failed to take advantage, leading defender Virgil van Dijk to call on his teammates to "look in the mirror and improve".
This season, Leicester have struggled to replicate their form from the last two campaigns, when they narrowly missed out on a top-four finish both times.
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Liverpool have conceded the opening goal in each of their last three Premier League games, the first time this has happened since November 2019.
But they fought hard against City and the same battling spirit was rewarded with three points here.
"Given the context of the game on the back of Sunday, the players put in a heroic performance given the recovery time and having played City," Leicester manager and former Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers said.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS
