In a post-match press conference, Jurgen Klopp blamed Liverpool’s lacklustre performance in our Champions League group game at home to Atalanta on the changes to his line-up.
It was a performance to forget, with the Reds failing to register a single shot on target – a first for the club – according to a tweet from Opta, at home in the competition.
0 – For the first time since Opta have shot data available in the Champions League (since 2003-04), Liverpool failed to record a single shot on target in a home game in the competition. Neutralised. pic.twitter.com/NEdXaF519J
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) November 25, 2020
We’re still struggling to process the game, though Klopp came prepared with an explanation.
The German praised Atalanta for their ‘aggressive’ defending, something that his Liverpool side lacked in a performance that was virtually unrecognisable from our blistering prior outing away in Italy.
“It’s all about decision-making and tonight the decision-making was obviously not so good,” the Liverpool manager spoke in his post-match presser.
When pressed for an answer as to where things went wrong, Klopp added that the much-changed first XI, though well intentioned, was largely responsible.
“And, yes, we made five changes; that was very important for us that we did that. In the end, it didn’t work out. That’s part of the deal, you never know before,” Klopp added.
Though changes were made late in the game, fatigue and a lack of fluency across the pitch appeared to take its toll.
Given the changes made to the starting XI and Klopp’s previous complaints about the Premier League’s fixture scheduling, we reckon that this could be chalked up to a blip in an otherwise successful European campaign.
With key players rested, we should be able to look forward to a far more aggressive performance from Liverpool, when the club returns to Premier League action this Saturday against Brighton.