Frustration: Jurgen Klopp watched his Liverpool side slump to defeat at Brentford
(Picture: Getty Images)Jurgen Klopp admitted his Liverpool side failed to deal with Brentford’s “chaos” as Thomas Frank’s men began the New Year with a famous 3-1 victory on Monday night.
Brentford claimed their first win over Liverpool since 1938 as the Reds’ mid-season resurgence was brought to an abrupt halt after four successive Premier League wins either side of the World Cup.
In a frantic game, the Bees led 2-0 at half-time having also had two more goals ruled out for offside as Liverpool looked particularly vulnerable from set-pieces after Klopp had warned of the threat posed by Brentford’s physicality and directness.
“Brentford has always the chance to create chaos,” Klopp said. “That’s what they do really well and I respect that a lot.
“You cannot defend long balls all the time. They were super direct. That limits them in some aspects but in these kind of games it gives them always the chance to create real chaos.
“That’s what they did, they organised it extremely well and they have all my respect but you cannot defend that clear-cut all the time, you have to fight.”
Klopp also accused Brentford of “stretching the rules” with their approach to attacking set-pieces.
“Brentford create chaos with set-pieces. When I say they stretch the rules, they do, in offensive set-pieces,” he said.
“Don’t get me wrong, it’s smart, but they do. If you could single out all the situations you would find five fouls but because it’s so chaotic no one sees it in the end.
“So that’s what they do and it’s really good. You know before the game how strong they are from corners. The game got decided by the second goal which was our fault.
“We got away with an offside. That’s all OK, and then we are not awake, they cross the ball and score the second that decided the game. The third goal should not have been allowed but we should have played better.”
Liverpool pulled a goal back after the break through Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain after Darwin Nunez had seen an effort chalked off, before Bryan Mbeumo’s late clincher, which Klopp felt should have been disallowed for a foul on Ibrahima Konate.
The defeat means Liverpool missed out on the chance to go fifth in the Premier League and close the gap on the top four after several of their likely Champions League rivals dropped points over the weekend.
“We can change our position only by winning football matches and tonight is the opposite,” Klopp added. “We can't gain any points or take any confidence from tonight, nothing from it.
“We have a lot of players not available at the moment and you can see that in the changes, we can't just throw in offensive players to give someone a rest, everyone has to fight through, that's the situation.”
