Jurgen Klopp was forced to settle for a point as Manchester United held on for a goalless draw against Liverpool (Picture: Hayters TV)
Jurgen Klopp admitted he was frustrated with Manchester United’s tactics as Liverpool surrendered their 100% home record following a drab goalless draw at Anfield.
The home side were nowhere near their pulsating best, but still created a glut of opportunities that, on another day, would have yielded a convincing victory.
United, for their part, showed the spirit and tenacity that was badly lacking in the recent defeats against Bournemouth and Bayern Munich and fully merited the point they gained for their efforts.
Given their lack of confidence and a mounting injury crisis, it was little surprise that United looked to soak up pressure and hit on the counter but their tactical approach did not go down well with their opponents.
Virgil van Dijk claimed there was only one team who wanted to win the game and those sentiments were later echoed by Klopp who insisted United were only interested in defending.
‘I’ve had a few minutes to recover from the disappointment,’ said the Liverpool mananger.
‘I’m too long in the this to not understand what happened today with the whole build-up. I prefer them being in a better position so then we can play football.
‘If you play in the Premier League with a team of quality like Man Utd and they just defend then it doesn’t make life easy.
‘We should have scored and that would have changed the dynamic of the game. The chances were big enough so we were unlucky.
‘The style of the game was the best we had, the press we played was the best we had. It was a big game for us and there was a lot of emotion in there.
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‘I thought we created an incredible atmosphere on the pitch which led to it being incredible off the pitch. The fans did their part so it’s all good beside the result.
‘It’s just how it is and we can take a lot from this game. We started the game intensely. Today we didn’t have to come back and we were disciplined form the start.
‘This was a real derby and there was everything. It was a good game to watch.’
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