Liverpool and Manchester City claimed a point apiece as Sunday's absorbing Premier League showdown at Anfield ended 2-2.
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Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp showcased his sense of humour through a funny description of his side’s performance in the recent 2-2 draw at home against Manchester City. Klopp expressed his thankfulness for a game of football comprising of two halves, indicating the difference in performances. The Liverpool manager termed his side’s performance in the first half as exactly the kind of football which a team should not be delivering against Manchester City. However, he hailed the display in the second half as the one which teams should be looking to ensure against an opposition of such class.
“Quite an exciting game, with two obviously completely different halves. Thank God that there were two halves today because the first half was obviously exactly like you shouldn’t do it against City and the second half was exactly like you should do it against City. Four goals obviously happened in the second half but in the first half I can’t remember a chance from us, if I’m right. So I was really happy about the half-time whistle so that we could adjust a few things. And actually we didn’t change anything, we just told the boys again what we actually wanted to or should have said already in the first half. Things like this happen against a team like City with the dominance they can put on the pitch. When you are then a little bit passive without the ball, when they pass through your lines, you never can really get in the challenges,” said Klopp as quoted by Liverpool’s official website.
“Our biggest problem in the first half was we didn’t play football, that doesn’t help. You meet for a football game, people come into a stadium and you don’t play football – that sounds wrong and is wrong. So we needed to start playing football in the second half, we did that immediately. I think that was obvious for everybody; all of a sudden City had to run a lot, had to defend, completely different to the first half because we now played really good. If we would have played only the second half, I actually would have liked to win the game. But together with the first half I am not that cheeky, I think the point is fine,” he added.
Klopp admitted that the decision to substitute James Milner was certainly impacted by the yellow card earned by the player in the first half. The Liverpool manager could not give a clear opinion on a controversial incident surrounding the footballer in the second half.
“I didn’t see it – [I was] too far away from that situation, but I obviously saw the reaction from the City bench. We had planned anyway to take Millie off because of the yellow card from the first half. The reaction second half… the second half was us: brave, aggressive, full of determination, ready to play in the small spaces, playing the extra pass, using the width and not constantly chipping these balls in behind the last line against a goalie who is probably the most front-footed goalie in the Premier League, so why would we do that, which we did constantly in the first half?,” stated the Liverpool manager.
“As I said, it’s a really good lesson for us today, not that I needed it, but at least when you get something like this first half then you have to show a reaction and the boys showed a reaction. I am overly happy with that, it was absolutely great. Even with two good halves, there were games when we didn’t win against City. Today was probably the worst we’ve played so far against them, but the second half, that was us,” he added.
