Klopp's Reaction: Defensive errors, first-half performance & more | Liverpool vs Real Madrid

Jürgen, there was so much good in that first half, how do you begin to sum up what happened on the night and assess how ultimately the game got away from you tonight? Yeah, I really think everything was pretty obvious tonight. We gave all five goals away, all five, which means we could have done better there, but they were all obviously different. To start in a game, and in our situation where we are, it's really important that we see positive steps, and I think the first half was pretty much, besides the two goals we conceded, the best we played for probably in the whole season. So I like that a lot, the two goals we have to defend better, OK, the second goal we cannot defend better, that's a slapstick, but it equalised pretty much our second goal, what we scored. The first goal we conceded we have to defend better, there are enough players around, nobody puts a foot in, it's very tight and it's just a world-class moment from the initials as well, but I think it's obvious that we can defend it better. Half-time, rather positive, to be honest, so I think, OK, boys, this happened, we have to play in this and that spaces, if we keep doing that they will have problems. And then we start with when we conceded the third goal, which is a horrible goal, and today it was pretty much a game-changer. I don't say it's OK that it's a game-changer, but it was today. We lost the momentum in that moment, and never got it really back. In the first half we could have scored a third one, we had our moment, so we were a bit unlucky here with the scrappy situation in the six-yard box, and in the second half obviously the game was the game Real Madrid wanted to play. And then both goals, the other goals which they scored, one is deflected, and they are not really well defended, to be honest. We lose the ball in the wrong moment, which is obviously a massive problem against Real Madrid with the counter-attacking threat they have, and that's how it came to the result, and that's it. I appreciate there's a lot of football to be played between now and the second leg, but Carlo did say to us that he can't say the tie is over, how do you feel tonight? I think Carlo thinks the tie is over, and I think it as well, in the moment. But in three weeks, it's how it is in these moments, the closer you get to the game the bigger our chances become, and the lesser likely it is that the tie is over, but tonight with a 5-2 and you see the game, it's like, they are pretty good in counter-attacking, we have to score their three goals, so take some risks, that could be a bit tricky. But it's really not in my mind, so we go there, I can say that already, and try to win the game. If that's possible or not, I don't know now, but that's what we will try from there. We will see. Can I just check on Joe as well, it looked like he was holding his hamstring when he came off, is there an issue there? We will see. He showed a little bit of sign, but we just made a decision, and now we will see, he will get checked tomorrow. Hi, Jürgen, Jose Padilla of Defensa Central, do you think Vinicius is one of the best players in the world? I can't hear it, should I? Is one OK here? He said it in English! He said it in English, do you think...? I thought because you were at the headset I didn't even listen to it, I was waiting for the translation. Do you think Vinicius now is one of the best players in the world? Vinicius? In the three, yes. Yeah. And Rodrigo? Outstanding as well, good players. Benzema is not bad as well. OK, thank you. You're welcome. Jürgen, are you concerned about what a result on a night like this might do to the confidence of the team, given how the damage...? I can see that people think that's understandable, but that's actually not allowed. I told the boys directly after the game, this is different from what happened tonight, there's one result that's exactly the opposite of what we wanted, we made mistakes around the goal, yes, as well, and I said that a couple of times, a defeat is a defeat if you don't learn from it. If you don't learn tonight that the start of the game was outstanding and the way we played it was us in a nutshell, that was us like we want to be, and that's what we have to keep doing. So if we now allow this one game to be influential, we are really silly. We have a few days where we'll make sure that we take the right things out of this game. Yes, we have to improve, third goal massively, first goal massively, but we have to take the good things as well, that would be horrible if we don't do that. It's a different game, of course, but anyway, the intensity, the effort we showed, the football we played, pretty much everything was like we want to see ourselves, so we have to make sure that we keep that. I know 5-2 could be damaging, but I hope I can make sure that it's not happening. Can I just ask you about the pitch, you've seen it on Facebook, is it over the walls a little bit? No. Yeah, I saw that as well, but most of the time the players didn't slip, so let's take that. I don't know exactly why a few players slipped, I saw that as well. We will speak about that, what's going on, but it was not over-watered, no. Hi, Jürgen, do you think that the way you play in the first half is how you want to play the rest of the season, and how can you go there in short time? How we can do that? How we can do that, instead of doing that for just 45 minutes, doing that for 90 minutes. Actually, I'm not sure how often you watched us, but we had periods where we played like this, and it's not like you don't have to defend each opponent with that intensity. Yes, intensity, yes, but obviously Madrid is one of the best teams in the world, so we don't face them, thankfully, every three days. There are things we have to improve, even in that period we could have been calmer on the ball, we prepared too much in these moments, but it was really difficult to defend for Madrid, much more than they wished for probably. But yes, it's the way we used to play, let me say it like this, in the past. Hi, Jürgen, Carlo was talking about how you gave them a lot of problems on their left side at the start of the game, and they had to improve on that side where Trent was. I'm just wondering what your assessment of it was, why was it working at the beginning of the game, and what happened, what changed? Nacho came on, he played a super game, I have to say, David Alaba is a top, top, top player. But I thought tonight we all saw why Nacho has been playing since 10 or I don't know how many years for Real Madrid, he played a real defensive game, it was not fussed too much about offensive moments. That's one thing, the other thing is, as I said, in the second half we were just not as good anymore, so then it was probably easier to defend us there. Last couple, and then the gentleman at the back. Hi, Jürgen, Javier Urrila in Paraguay. Finally. Javier Urrila in Paraguay. Yesterday Luka Modric said he wanted the renovation to be worth it, can you hear it? That's very helpful, you can just do it. You obviously are not too much interested in my problems, so this is not one of my problems. He's a fantastic player and I'm pretty sure Carlo and Real Madrid will do the right thing for the right player. Very last one at the back. Please ask me more questions about Real Madrid players. Jürgen, how much of a psychological factor was it, first the goal just after half-time, and also Madrid coming back from 2-0 just before half-time? I thought we spoke about that already, I really thought that the 3-2 was a massive impact, I saw that as well, the 2-1 and the 2-2, not so much, I was not too long to play anymore, but my personal feeling was, OK, first goal, bad defending, but well done as well. Second goal, slapstick, get over it and play from there. And then the third goal directly after half-time, we didn't deal particularly well with that, that's true, but you never want to concede goals, but I think if you just think about the first half, everybody's impression was, wow, that was a really good first half, even when we conceded two. I really thought our people saw it exactly like that, they were outstanding tonight in a difficult game, the first half was not so difficult to be positive, but even in the second half, when it was very difficult to stay positive, they were positive, and I'm really thankful for that.