Klopp was passionate with his celebration following Mane’s strike and has admitted he probably should have held back with still half an hour left to play.
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Liverpool’s complacency nearly proved critical as Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain scored immediately from kick-off and, 11 minutes later, Calum Chambers made it 4-3 with 15 minutes left to set up a nervy finish. “The manager wanted us to pressure them more and said how fit we were and how we can push on in the second half”.
“OK, I have a big, big part [to play] in the excitement in the last half hour, because it’s not allowed to celebrate the fourth goal when there is still half an hour to go”, Klopp told Sky Sports.
Substitutes Santi Cazorla and new signing Granit Xhaka swung the game back in Arsenal’s favour and, after Oxlade-Chamberlain bumbled one in, Chambers made it 4-3 on 76 minutes.
“It’s an impossible situation to get the players back from the Euros and have no time to prepare”.
“The second one is that physically we are not capable of maintaining the level, because not all the players have the same level of preparation”.
I thought if we concentrated and continued to play well we were going to win the game but, within a 15-minute spell, they scored three and decided the game.
Arsenal went into the game amid an injury crisis which has seen Per Mertesacker be ruled out for over four months, Gabriel suffer a knee injury and Laurent Koscielny miss out due to a lack of fitness.
Brazilian playmaker Coutinho scored a stunning 25-yard free-kick and a neat volley either side of half-time before hobbling off in the second half, but Klopp said he had just been suffering from cramp. They are not ready to play this sort of game and get injured, like Ramsey, or you give them a rest and not have them for the start.
Koscielny has a knock and recently competed at Euro 2016 where he helped France reach the final on home soil, only to lose out to Portugal. You don’t always win the league with the league’s top goal scorer.
“Scoring four is wonderful, conceding three is the opposite”, Klopp said.
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‘We were far away today from showing our whole quality.
