Liverpool failed to build on their opening day victory over Arsenal as Jurgen Klopp saw his side drubbed 0-2 away at Burnley. Playing their second successive home game to start the season, many predicted their trip to Turf Moor to be a walk in the park against the newly promoted Burnley.
The Reds looked composed for most of the game but failed to threaten Burnley’s goal. In the end, Klopp's men enjoyed an astounding 81% possession of the ball. However, they had to return without a single point to show for.
Trending
"[Possession] is what we did well," Klopp said at the post-match news conference. "But in the end, you have to use it. It's not allowed that you suffer under your own ball possession, that makes no sense.
"It's not that we didn't want it -- six or seven times Phil [Coutinho] alone was in the right position to shoot. In England you use the word 'clinical' -- in a lot of situations, I saw we were clinical but even then we didn't score. That's how it is and we have to accept it.
"I will watch the game again and I am pretty sure I will not see a lot of surprises in this game, I saw everything."
Liverpool went on the backfoot early on as a mistake at the back from Nathaniel Clyne, led to Sam Vokes opening the scoring for Burnley in the second minute of the game. Liverpool began to grow in the game following the early setback, they were again pegged back when Andre Grey doubled the lead for the Clarets 37 minutes in.
Klopp added: "When we conceded the first goal, we had a lot of time to win the game. As I said, even at half-time I felt there was still a possibility to do it.
"In the last moments, we were not where we should have been and that was a little bit of the problem, in the box, around the box. I saw crosses -- really good crosses -- when nobody was in the box. I saw shots when the whole box was full.
"Our timing and decision-making today was not really good. It might have been forced by the result and by the passion of the opponent, but it is how it is."
The Reds boss. however ,was out in praise for the striking duo of Vokes and Gray, who didn’t give his backline a moment’s respite on the counter-attack.
"We lost in a game in which we had in both halves about 80 percent possession," Klopp said. "But there are different ways to play football, that's absolutely OK. Especially the two strikers of Burnley, Vokes and Gray, did really well, physically strong guys.
"The rest defended with a big heart. I respect this but usually in a game like this, we win, if we don't make mistakes in the wrong moment. But we did. Now we have to accept the result and carry on."
Liverpool play Burton Albion next in the second round of the League Cup before traveling to White Hart Lane to take on Tottenham next week. The Reds are scheduled to play their first home game of their season against defending champions Leicester City on 10th September as a new three-tier section being added to the stadium.
This project will take the stadium capacity up to 54,167. The ground is also set to host a couple of big events before Liverpool's home opener in order to get to get the requisite safety certificates for the stands.
