Soccer-Klopp praises Bournemouth spirit as Liverpool lose again
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BOURNEMOUTH, England (Reuters) – Liverpool boss Juergen Klopp praised Bournemouth for a performance full of character as they handed his side a 1-0 defeat at the Vitality Stadium on Saturday that lifted the Cherries off the bottom of the Premier League table.
In contrast, Klopp’s side were sloppy in defence and toothless in attack as they slumped to their sixth loss of the season, with Mohamed Salah missing a second-half penalty that could have given Liverpool a draw they scarcely deserved.
“It was clear from the first second that we come here, Bournemouth are fighting to stay in the league, wonderful club, wonderful city, they want to stay in and they do really well,” Klopp told BT Sport.
“Results were not going in the right direction in the last few months, but the performances look different, and so they deserve the three points today, that’s it.”
The same could be said of Liverpool, who were unstoppable in last week’s 7-0 win over Manchester United but almost unwatchable on Saturday as they failed to create much of note against a side battling to stay up.
Danish midfielder Philip Billing got the only goal of the game, and Klopp was disappointed with how easy it was for him to fire home Dango Ouattara’s centre in the 28th minute.
“I don’t know 100% anymore how the positioning was, I need to watch it back. In the end, a ball comes from the outside into the inside and probably it should be defendable as well, but I have to watch it back,” Klopp said.
Overall the Liverpool boss was not impressed with his side’s display.
“What can I say? It was never really our game. We were dominant in the first half, but mostly we put (the) ball in at the wrong moment against a compact side,” he said.
(Reporting by Philip O’Connor; Editing by Hugh Lawson)