Jurgen Klopp could scarcely believe what he saw at Anfield (Picture: Getty Images)
Jurgen Klopp says he didn’t know his players were capable of the performances they produced in a ‘really bad’ 3-0 loss to Atalanta at Anfield in the Europa League quarter-finals.
Klopp did not field his strongest team on Thursday night, with the likes of Mohamed Salah, Luis Diaz, Andy Robertson and Dominik Szoboszlai on the bench, but it was still a very good starting XI.
However, Anfield was stunned as former West Ham striker Gianluca Scamacca scored twice and Mario Pasalic completed the surprise rout late on.
The tie is not over, with a second leg to come in Bergamo, but it would take an incredible reversal for the Reds to now progress to the semi-finals.
Klopp was not sugar-coating the nightmare display, thinking of just one positive and admitting he didn’t know that his players were capable of such a poor outing.
‘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.
Mario Pasalic scored a late third for Atalanta (Picture: Getty Images)
‘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.’
It was a night to forget for Liverpool’s stars (Picture: Getty Images)
After a first home defeat in 14 months, Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk added: ‘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.’
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