Liverpool look to strike back after Watford loss

LONDON: Jurgen Klopp revealed he refused to read the riot act to his Liverpool stars after they suffered their first Premier League defeat of the season at Watford.

Saturday’s shock 3-0 loss at Vicarage Road ended Liverpool’s 44-match undefeated run in the top flight and prevented the Reds setting a new Premier League record of 19 successive victories. But, instead of laying into his players after their poorest performance in over a year, Klopp gave them a calculated assessment of where they had gone wrong after re-watching the match on his return home.

Klopp’s calm review was a mark of respect for what the world and European champions have achieved over the last year. And the Reds boss said he would be an “idiot” if he now began to doubt a team who are 22 points clear at the top of the Premier League.

“It can happen that I get angry with the players, but I didn’t get angry with the players in this meeting,” he said.

“From a common sense point of view, if I go in that meeting and shout at them like they have lost the last 10 games in a row because of a bad attitude that would be really strange.

“I am not interested that after the meeting I feel better. I am interested in the boys getting the right information and it can be more emotional — I would not say angry — or less emotional.

“If you need to analyse, you analyse and analysis is not really emotional. It is looking at the facts and we were just not good enough. That is the easy answer.”

Klopp expects Liverpool to make amends for the Watford defeat when they head to Chelsea in the FA Cup fifth round on Tuesday. “Of course, they want to strike back. This is an exceptional group of players. The situation we are in is special,” he said.