Jurgen Klopp initially feared that he'd been targeted with a glass bottle thrown by a supporter during Liverpool 's frustrating 0-0 draw with Everton at Goodison Park on Saturday.
Everton defender Conor Coady thought he'd broken the deadlock for the hosts in the second half but his goal was ruled out for offside by VAR. Amidst the fury felt among Everton fans, a bottle was thrown towards Klopp's technical area and almost hit the Liverpool manager. Thankfully it didn't, nor was it glass as Klopp presumed at first.
"I thought it was a glass bottle but it was not," the Reds boss explained in his post-match press conference. "I saw it now because it's still at the 'crime scene'. No, no, it was a plastic bottle. In the moment it looked like a glass bottle, that would have been really dangerous but it was a plastic bottle."
There was no damage done as a result of the incident, but the game itself was a blow to Klopp and co's season. Having taken only 50 per cent of available points from six Premier League matches so far, the German admits that his Liverpool side haven't started like "a dream."
"After Wednesday [against Newcastle ] it was really tough," Klopp added, speaking to Match of the Day. "These games are rarely for people who love the most beautiful football, because both teams have to fight like crazy. It was just super intense. We created a lot of chances and especially with the timing of our last goal [on Wednesday], it feels like we lost two points.
"The best moments they had were from counter-attacks after we were in their box. Our positioning for the second ball wasn't great. The situation we're in right now is not a dream. It’s good that players are coming back, but we have to make sure we use them in the right manner.
"It's not the start we wanted. Six games and nine points is not exactly a dream, but those are the points we've got and let's go from there. If we get through these moments together we have a chance to create better moments in the future."
Reds centre-back Virgil van Dijk echoed his gaffer's comments and said: "It was an intense game - a game that we feel we lost points. Hitting the post and the crossbar, we could've done better in this case but we have to accept there were good moments and moments for improvement.
Get involved! Where will Liverpool finish this season? Give us your prediction in the comments section.
"We're still early in the season so we want to improve and we know we can. They had two big moments, with Alisson making a few saves and offside is offside, if we count our opportunities I think we should've won the game and unfortunately we didn't. It's about winning games, and we didn't win as much as we would like to.
"We have 32 games left and everyone can have their opinion but we have players coming back from injury and hopefully everyone can stay fit and we try to get some wins. The expectation is high, we are one of the biggest clubs in the world so that will always be the case so we have to enjoy it too."
