NEWCASTLE, United Kingdom: Jurgen Klopp assessed Liverpool’s latest failure to win a Premier League game after a 1-1 draw at Newcastle United by saying: “Football is not fair.”
Liverpool’s German manager found it difficult to accept that the visitors emerged with only a point thanks to a spectacular long-range goal from Philippe Coutinho after enjoying twice as much possession as Rafael Benitez’s Newcastle at St. James’ Park on Sunday.
“I thought we were the better side and created more clear chances. I think we should have won,” Klopp said after a draw that leaves Liverpool seven points adrift of front-runners Manchester City and Manchester United.
A victory that would have moved Liverpool into the top four appeared likely after Coutinho put them ahead in the 29th minute, but they paid the price for failing to take other chances.
Klopp remains confident, however, that Liverpool, yet to win the English title in the Premier League era, are equipped to mount a challenge at the top of the table.
“I cannot talk about our football and the gap between us and other teams. We are having our hard moment and other teams will have their hard moment,” he said.
“I really think it looks like we are not far away from a real challenge,” he added with Liverpool having won the last of their then-record 18 English titles in 1990.
Klopp insisted: “If we do what we are good at then we can score more goals and we will win more games.
“We don’t have to think about other teams and we will close the gap. It’s is all about our situation, we are not thinking about where the others are.
“I’ve played a lot of times with different teams in my life to know when we have a problem — and here we were the better team again and created more chances. We were in very promising situations, but didn’t score.
“I’ve been around football and I know there is going to be one day when it will click and we will score more. Yes, we have one win in seven, but in most of those games we have been the better team.”
“Now the only thing to do is carry on and hope that something happens. We are still confident. It’s our duty to be confident because the players have quality.”
Quality is not always enough, however. There has to be defensive organization and it was lacking when Joselu scored Newcastle’s 36th-minute equalizer following an excellent through ball from former Liverpool midfielder Jonjo Shelvey.
“It was a good pass, but if the defenders see it, they have to step forward and get him offside,” Klopp said. “We made one mistake and it’s 1-1. They (Newcastle) made a lot more mistakes.”
Benitez was pleased by his team’s performance against the club he once guided to a Champions League triumph in a match where millionaire businesswoman Amanda Staveley was among the crowd amid speculation she could be linked with a takeover of the Tyneside club.
“We have got a point at home, which isn’t the best, but against one of the top teams, you will take it,” said Benitez, now well on the way to becoming a fans’ favorite at northeast side Newcastle.
“They have a lot of players with quality, they are dangerous from set pieces and they are dangerous in one v one situations,” the Spaniard added.
“They are a very good team and that is why I’m pleased with the performance of my players. They were really working hard and, if we had shown a little more composure on the ball, maybe we would have scored a second goal.”
Klopp laments ‘unfair’ football after Newcastle draw
Klopp laments ‘unfair’ football after Newcastle draw
Postecoglou admits taking Nottingham Forest post a ‘bad decision’
- Postecoglou, 60, was appointed as Nuno Espirito Santo’s successor in September
- “There’s no point me blaming it on ‘I didn’t get time’ or anything,” said Postecoglou
LONDON: Ange Postecoglou has said he has only himself to blame for an extraordinarily brief reign as Nottingham Forest manager, with the Australian accepting he made “a bad decision” taking on the job with the Premier League strugglers.
Postecoglou, 60, was appointed as Nuno Espirito Santo’s successor in September.
But infamously impatient Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis sacked Postecoglou just 39 days later, after the experienced manager lost six of his eight games in charge.
Postecoglou, reflecting on his time at Forest for the Overlap podcast, said an over-eagerness to get back into management after his departure from Tottenham Hotspur three months earlier, had been the root cause of his troubles at the City Ground.
“There’s no point me blaming it on ‘I didn’t get time’ or anything,” said Postecoglou. “I should never have gone in there. That was on me. That was a bad decision by me to go in there. I’ve got to take ownership of that.
“It was too soon after Tottenham. I was taking over at a time where they were kind of used to doing things a certain way and I’m obviously going to do things differently. I’ve got to cop that, that was my mistake. It’s no-one else’s fault.”
Postecoglou remains without a club but he has ruled out returning to Celtic, where he enjoyed a successful two-year stint from 2021-23, with the 73-year-old Martin O’Neill currently in caretaker charge of the Scottish champions until the end of the season.
“I loved Celtic, it’s a wonderful football club,” said Postecoglou, who left the Glasgow giants to join Spurs. “If I was younger, I probably would have stayed there longer. I probably would have stayed there three, four years.
“I think I could have made progress with them in Europe but at the time, it had taken me a long time to get to this sort of space, and the opportunity to join Tottenham was too good.
“In terms of going back, I don’t go back. I just don’t think that’s kind of been my career.
“Whatever the next step is, it’ll be something new, somewhere I can make an impact in, somewhere I can win things, but it doesn’t diminish the affection I have for Celtic.”
