Jurgen Klopp acknowledged that Liverpool’s performance in the 2-2 draw against Fulham on Saturday, August 6, 2022, fell short of expectations.
The Reds fell behind twice at Craven Cottage thanks to goals from Aleksandar Mitrovic, but they rallied to earn a point on both occasions.
With 10 minutes left, Mohamed Salah scored from the spot after Darwin Nunez had made his league debut with a goal off the bench.
The “dry” field, according to Jurgen Klopp, was to blame for Liverpool’s 2-2 draw with Fulham at Craven Cottage on lunchtime.
The recently promoted side of Marco Silva’s team tested the Carabao and FA Cup champions, and put them behind 1-0 thanks to Aleksandar Mitrovic’s header in the first half.
In the second half, Liverpool’s record signing, £85 million Darwin Nunez made his Premier League debut and scored before Mitrovic turned Virgil van Dijk inside out and won a penalty, which he converted past Alisson Becker.
In the 80th minute, Mo Salah tied the score to keep Liverpool’s season from getting off to a bad start. However, the Reds weren’t at their typical level after winning the Community Shield the previous week, and this gave Klopp another justification to lament.
“The best thing about the game is the result,” Klopp told Des Kelly of BT Sport after the draw.
“A really bad game. How can that happen? The attitude was not right in the beginning. We tried to react after 15 minutes. The pitch was dry, stuff like this. Really difficult.”
Klopp certainly has a talent for attributing failure to unrelated causes. In the past, he made notable mention of COVID-19, snow, wind, heat, and the absence of spectators as causes for Liverpool’s subpar performance.
Additionally, he blamed two errors from Alisson on “cold feet,” and criticized having to play Real Madrid in their B team’s stadium a few years ago.
This season that the Premier League has instituted half-time interviews, the fans should expect more from the great Klopp.
Meanwhile, Liverpool’s first home game of the year is up next against Crystal Palace, who will visit Anfield the following Monday after falling to Arsenal 2-0 in the season opener.
On August 22, Liverpool will play host to Manchester United in a crucial match in Merseyside (Anfield Stadium).
Jurgen Klopp on Nunez coming off the bench
“All fine, that’s how it should be. In a situation like that when we don’t really find a way in front of the goal, you need this extra determination, and the difference as well, it makes it difficult for the opponent obviously”, Klopp said.
“Yes, a great goal, could have scored another one as well, maybe two – crazy. So, he is involved in a lot of goal-scoring situations – that’s really cool and that’s where we have to bring him up. Now imagine we would play good, how often we could set him up then?”
“Because that was obviously our main problem, that our delivery was most of the time not good enough, and that was alright – we had massive chances, it’s crazy. If I would watch it back, if you watch highlights, you could misunderstand this game completely because we had a few really good situations, but between these situations we just didn’t play well.“
Jordan Henderson says the Reds have work to do following the 2-2 draw with Fulham on the opening day.
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) August 7, 2022
