Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp believes that his side produced a “much better” performance against Brighton & Hove Albion in Sunday’s FA Cup defeat compared to their top-flight humiliation.
The Reds suffered a catastrophic 3-0 Premier League humbling to the Seagulls two weekends ago, in what Klopp labelled the worst game of his managerial career so far.
Liverpool sought a slice of revenge against Roberto De Zerbi’s men in the FA Cup, entering the fourth-round tie as defending champions, but they suffered a second dose of South-coast disappointment in a 2-1 defeat.
As a result, Klopp’s side will not be retaining their EFL Cup or FA Cup crowns in the current campaign, meaning that their only realistic chance of silverware now lies in the Champions League.
However, speaking in his post-game press conference, Klopp was pleased to see his side produce a “much better” showing than their three-goal defeat at the Amex Stadium a fortnight ago.
“We came here to go through to the next round, with the game a couple of weeks ago in mind, which was pretty much rock-bottom of the performances we had in my time [here],” Klopp explained.
“So that was better today, much better. But still, in the end, we concede two goals from set-pieces. We pretty much closed the gaps where they passed through last time, but around set-pieces that doesn’t help, so you have to do different stuff, so twice we were not close enough to avoid the goal.
“That doesn’t feel great, obviously. That’s not cool, but we have to take it. I am not over the moon about this performance but, again, the only thing that happened really is that we lost against a good side, who we lost [to] two weeks ago in a horrendous game. Today was much better.
“Again, I’m very sorry, probably a lot of Liverpool fans are from Brighton, so they saw us now twice in two weeks. They were brilliant, absolutely brilliant again. Today we paid a little bit back, I would say. They saw a goal, they saw chances, so it was better.”
Liverpool withstood early Brighton pressure before taking the lead through Harvey Elliott on the half-hour mark, but the Reds were only ahead for nine minutes, as Lewis Dunk diverted Tariq Lamptey’s half-volley into the net before half time.
Brighton threatened a winner in the second 45, and the crucial goal finally arrived in stoppage time, as Kaoru Mitoma took the ball down beautifully inside the box before delicately volleying home following a free kick.
Klopp added that the “body language” of some of his players was not up to scratch on Sunday afternoon, saying: “Now we play Wolves again and we will try there again and that’s how it is.
“We have to build on these kind of things, we have to improve, we have to do better, body language with a couple of boys has to be much better, defending in the formation has to be better from a few.
“The last game here we couldn’t have won, no chance. I was happy that we got more. Today, I think nobody would have been surprised if we’d won this game, so it’s not, ‘How did that happen?’ So that’s good but for today and for the competition not good enough and that’s why we are out.”
Liverpool, who sit ninth in the Premier League table, are next in action away to Wolverhampton Wanderers in the top flight on Saturday.
