Jürgen Klopp admits Liverpool failed to deal with Brentford’s “chaos” during Liverpool’s defeat

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Jurgen Klopp has admitted that Brentford’s “havoc” overtook Liverpool during their 3-1 defeat in west London, suggesting their opponents have thrived on the dark arts during set pieces.

A woeful defensive performance left Klopp’s side four points off the Champions League places and punctured their recovery recently. He felt Brentford’s third goal, scored late on by Brian Mbeumu, should have been disallowed for a foul on Ibrahima Konate and pointed out the mayhem caused by the Bees on corner kicks. The opener, an own goal from Konate, came from one situation and two other entertaining leads to disallowed goals from Yoann Wissa.

He said, “When I say they stretch the bases on attacking set pieces – and they do, don’t get me wrong, they’re smart but they do – if you spot every situation you get five fouls.” “But because it’s so messy, nobody sees it. That’s what they do, and it’s really good, they react to different things. They play that way against us, but they play football against other teams and that’s great.

“You can’t defend long balls all the time, they were super direct. It limits them in some aspects, but in this type of game they can create chaos and they have organized that very well.”

Klopp qualified his remarks with huge praise for Thomas Frank and Brentford, who are on a six-match unbeaten run and are seventh behind Liverpool. He criticized his team’s defense of Wissa’s goal, shortly before half-time, which put Brentford ahead twice, but felt the officials had made a mistake when Mboymou settled the issue.

He said, “We received a third goal that should have been cancelled.” “It’s a whole two-man race and when you get a push at that moment you can lose balance and go down. But Stuart Atwell saw it differently and then the VAR he generally checked could be hiding behind the words ‘clear and clear’.”

Liverpool have won the previous three times and Klopp concedes that this regression was a step backwards. “We are lost, how could it be a step in a different direction?” He said. “We can only change our position by winning matches, and tonight the opposite. We can’t take the positives or confidence from that, but we have to win football matches.”

Frank was visibly happy to poke fun at Klopp’s concerns about Brentford’s behavior at corners and free kicks. “I think we have some very good referees and then we have the VAR rule,” he said. “It’s never been harder to score goals.”

As Brentford flirted with challenging the European spots, he urged a measured approach to their situation. “I hope the fans dream big, and I hope the players dream big,” he said. “But on the other hand, this is a very difficult league and if you have a couple of injuries it can be very difficult.”

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