Jurgen Klopp happy with Liverpool performance in Manchester United draw despite another goalless outing

The Reds missed the chance to regain top spot in the league

Karl Matchett
Sunday 17 January 2021 19:29 GMT
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(Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

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Jurgen Klopp acknowledged that Liverpool are in a moment of struggle in the search for goals, but was otherwise pleased with his team’s performance against Manchester United.

Another makeshift back line kept a clean sheet at Anfield in the 0-0 draw, but a failure to find the back of the net for a third successive league game leaves the Reds third in the table - which will become fourth if Man City beat Crystal Palace.

The manager praised his team for their control of the game against an in-form United team who are league leaders at present, while Alisson Becker had to come up with a couple of big saves late in the match to keep the scores level.

READ MORE: Premier League fixtures and table - all matches by date and kick-off time

“A lot of good stuff, what we miss is a goal. You cannot deny United for 90 minutes, it’s not possible for anybody when they’re in a good moment, but my boys did a really good game tonight,” Klopp told Sky Sports at full time.

“First half we played exceptionally the way we kept them under pressure, [but] we didn’t score. That’s the most important thing in football, we don’t want to miss it but we did. They had two big chances, Ali makes two really big saves, but we had our big one as well.”

Liverpool have now not scored in almost 350 minutes of play in the league – despite still being the leading goalscorers in the top flight.

Sadio Mane’s early goal against West Brom was the last time the Reds managed to net, with blanks since then against Newcastle, Southampton and now United. On his team’s misfiring attack, Klopp remained expectant that matters would revert to the norm soon.

“There’s no easy explanation. We always missed chances, it’s just we had another one which we used [afterwards]. You have to keep going, try to ignore the talks around, stay focused on doing the right stuff.

“It’s more important the way you react to a missed chance. When you didn’t score for a while then you start to feel differently and that’s the challenge.

“In the end we had to be good to get a point; we were good enough to get all three but we didn’t score. These moments happen, you can’t explain why you score from all angles like [in the 7-0 win] against Palace, this is the other moment. You have to create and we’ll score, everyone knows it. It’s just a bit annoying in between these two moments.”

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