ReactionJürgen Klopp press conference: Toulouse 3-2 Liverpool
Jürgen Klopp analysed Liverpool's 3-2 defeat by Toulouse in the Europa League during a post-match press conference on Thursday.
The Reds were beaten in France as Aron Donnum and Thijs Dallinga gave the home side a two-goal advantage after an hour of the Group E contest.
An own goal from Cristian Casseres handed Liverpool a lifeline 14 minutes from time, before Frank Magri restored the cushion once more moments later.
Klopp's men were again thrust back into the contest in the 89th minute by substitute Diogo Jota, and then thought they had a crucial leveller deep into added time, only for Jarell Quansah's close-range effort to be chalked off by VAR for handball by Alexis Mac Allister in the build-up.
Read on for a round-up of the boss' post-match thoughts...
On the result and Liverpool's performance…
It was well deserved to lose because they won pretty much all the decisive challenges, battles. We have too many situations where we should have won the ball but we didn't. On top of that we gave the ball away easily at least twice - one was a goal, the other I am not sure if it was an allowed goal or a disallowed goal. Counter-attack, third goal, last line too deep. Defending-wise it was just not good enough.
When you concede three goals then you need to score a lot of goals to still win it and obviously it nearly happened that we got a point here. That wouldn't have made the game better, but it would have felt better in the table. But that's it now, so we have to accept it. As I said, well deserved.
On the handball decision given against Mac Allister…
I only saw the video back now and for me it's not a handball, but how can I decide that? The ball goes to the chest and then I don't see a contact with the arm, to be honest. Maybe they had a different picture than I had. It was pretty long ago before we scored the goal and I thought, 'Where is the free-kick?' I didn't see it properly but I heard there could have been a penalty for us in another situation, I don't know. Actually, I am a bit more concerned about [the fact that] I would have loved us to have played better, to be honest. That's my main issue tonight. In a football way more aggressive.
On whether he's concerned by Liverpool's performance…
No, I am not concerned. In the end, we were intense - we threw everything in, but the problem is in a football game you have to make the decisive things in the right moment to do them right. We cannot concede the goals we conceded again. The first goal can happen, but then it happened in the second half [with] similar situations: we were completely open, last line too deep, counter-attack.
They scored five goals, two disallowed, and that is obviously then not good. Yes, the result is the opposite of good, but the performance was just not good enough. I am not concerned, I just see we have to change and we will, definitely. I just don't want we accept it a little bit. I would have loved to have got the point - the performance could have been better but we have a point - but I would have said exactly the same. We have to be better in these moments, 100 per cent, and that's it.