Liverpool's 25-game unbeaten run was ended in a thrilling encounter at The London Stadium.
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Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp expressed his anger following the team’s first defeat in all competitions this season against West Ham United, with the hosts adding to an early Alisson Becker own goal with second-half strikes by Pablo Fornals and Kurt Zouma. Trent Alexander-Arnold had drawn the visitors level with an outstanding free-kick shortly before half-time, while Divock Origi netted in the closing stages.
“So, yeah, first half completely in control of the game, anyway 1-0 down because of a set-piece. We scored the equaliser – a wonderful goal – and were really in control and in charge of the game. Obviously West Ham play really good stuff this season but today it was a bit more like the old West Ham – sitting deep, going for set-pieces and counter-attacks. In the first half we didn’t let that happen apart from one, I think, set-piece, if I’m 100 per cent right, at least where they scored the goal. Then second half we lost balls in general, we lost more balls than in the first half,” said Klopp.
“They scored from a counter-attack and from a set-piece; the second one was exceptionally well taken and a great, fantastic finish from Zouma. But that all shouldn’t have happened because we should have controlled the game still in the second half. For whatever reason, it looked for me a little bit like we lost patience, it was like we didn’t have enough clear-cut chances so we wanted to change the wrong things. Actually, our passing changed too early, we had to do that higher up the pitch, then you are better protected. Then we were in the situations where we lost the balls. That’s it, pretty much,” he added.
Klopp followed it up by discussing the decisions for the opening goal of the game, and Aaron Cresswell’s challenge on Jordan Henderson.
“Yeah, that’s why I spoke now first about the game independent of these situations. So, we lost that game. But I think it’s a clear foul on Alisson, how can it not be? The arm from Ogbonna is there. I really don’t know who was VAR today. You always have to say that the ref maybe in the game can’t see that, but in the situation when you see how the dynamic of the whole situation, when they all go down, how close they are, they are like in each other. How can that not be a foul already, without pushing the arm of Alisson away? But the ref made it easy for himself and thought, come on, let’s see what the VAR is saying. The VAR had a look and said not clear and obvious, I don’t know why. And here’s the goal, which is really strange,” he said.
“Then, I saw only the situation with Aaron and Hendo now and the way I saw it now, it’s a clear red card. There’s actually no discussion possible and, again, I don’t know how. [He] will probably say because he touched the ball before, but a reckless challenge can touch whatever you want before but you cannot control your leg that much that you don’t hit your opponent high up on the leg – on the chin – you cannot go like this in a challenge. We cannot make these decisions obviously and the ref, I don’t know what he would say about that now but in the game he looked quite confident that his decisions were all right,” added Klopp.
