Jürgen Klopp ‘blames’ Man Utd for dip in Liverpool form as title hopes suffer hammer blow

Liverpool boss Jürgen Klopp points to the recent match against Manchester United as a key moment. His side has struggled for form since failing to win at Old Trafford.

Jürgen Klopp has attributed the recent decline in performances from his Liverpool squad to a disappointing result against Manchester United. The Reds suffered an early exit from the FA Cup in March at the hands of the Red Devils, and two weeks later, they were held to a draw when the two sides met in the Premier League.

In both matches, Liverpool squandered numerous scoring opportunities. Despite registering 25 attempts on goal in the 4-3 FA Cup defeat and 28 attempts in the league fixture, they failed to capitalize on their chances. While it remains unclear which game Klopp was specifically referring to, it’s evident that Liverpool has struggled to regain momentum since the dramatic FA Cup exit.

They faced elimination from the Europa League at the hands of Serie A side Atalanta and suffered a surprising loss to Crystal Palace at Anfield. The Merseyside derby defeat to Everton compounded their struggles, allowing Arsenal to open a three-point gap at the top of the table, with Manchester City trailing in third place with two games in hand

Speaking after the 2-0 loss at Goodison Park on Wednesday evening, Klopp said. “You can see we are in a rush in front of the goal, you can see that. It’s long ago but I blame a little bit the [Manchester] United game for it; that many chances and you play really good but you don’t get anything for it.

“That’s really bad. Since then, we create but we don’t score often enough and that doesn’t help. It’s not like in a situation like that you don’t score and then just [think], ‘Ah, forget it, who cares?’ You cannot act like you scored 15 goals in the last two games or whatever.

“You can see that and that’s a problem. It’s always like this: you have to fight through these periods, it was never different. People asked me already about mentality. The mentality has different aspects. It’s not a problem of attitude.

“The boys want; nobody is doing anything like that on purpose. It’s my job to bring them into a situation that they feel confident to do it. With that part, I’m responsible for everything that happened tonight, so it’s not that I feel great. But that’s the most tricky part of football obviously, and in the moment it didn’t work out and now we have to keep trying.”