Jurgen Klopp expressed his disbelief at the subpar performance his team displayed in a disappointing 3-0 defeat to Atalanta at Anfield during the Europa League quarter-finals.
Despite resting key players like Mohamed Salah, Luis Diaz, Andy Robertson, and Dominik Szoboszlai, Klopp’s lineup was still formidable on Thursday night.
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The Anfield crowd was left in shock as Gianluca Scamacca, the former West Ham forward, netted a brace, and Mario Pasalic sealed the unexpected drubbing towards the end.
While the quarter-final is not yet decided, with a return leg in Bergamo, Liverpool faces a daunting task to overturn the deficit and secure a spot in the semi-finals.
Klopp offered no excuses for the dismal showing, conceding that he was unaware his players could produce such an underwhelming performance.
‘Unfortunately there is nothing really positive to say about the game,’ he told TNT Sports. ‘The start was good. Darwin Nunez had a good moment but from that moment on it became a really bad game and there is nothing positive to say.
‘I didn’t like our tactical positioning in possession. It was a bad game from us. Atalanta had a good game, scored three goals and deserved to win.
‘I will watch this game on Monday. I know already that if we do a couple of things better, we will be better. Can we win it back? Yes, if we play good it is possible. Can we win 3-0? I have no idea. But this feels really bad and that’s important. That was a bad performance and that’s how it is. That’s how we lost. It feels always in this moment that they are through but until we play, they are not.
‘We haven’t had that that often so we have to show a reaction immediately on Sunday. In this moment it must feel bad. The lads must go home and sleep badly. But we must prepare for Crystal Palace.
‘A lot of performances tonight were really “oops, wow, I didn’t know they could play like that.” A lot of the players looked really alone in a lot of moments. It was really bad. We had our biggest chances in the end and didn’t use them.
‘I know the boys can play better football but they didn’t do it tonight and we have to show a reaction on Sunday. I’m pretty sure they will do that.’
After a first home defeat in 14 months, Liverpool skipper Virgil van Dijk said: ‘Obviously it’s not great. A very, very disappointing evening. Too many individual mistakes and we got punished for it. It feels bad.
‘It hurts of course. We haven’t lost here for a long time. But we shouldn’t take the credit away from them. They punished us for being sloppy in possession. We still had chances to score one or two and unfortunately we didn’t.’
