Jurgen Klopp talks through what happened at Newcastle and says 2020 had only one highlight for him
Jurgen Klopp watched on as his team failed to score in a Premier League match for the first time this season.
However, the Liverpool boss was far from despondent after the game at Newcastle United.
Jurgen Klopp felt his players ‘lost the plot’ when playing and drawing with West Brom in their last match.
On Wednesday night though, he felt it was a good performance at St James Park from his side and they just didn’t take their chances.
A combination of poor to average finishing, outstanding goalkeeping from MOTM Karl Darlow and committed defending by the NUFC centre-backs especially, meant it was only a point for the reigning champions and league leaders.
Despite having none of their usual centre-backs available, Newcastle very rarely threatened the makeshift visiting defence, a Ciaran Clark header turned away by Alisson the best that Steve Bruce’s team could offer.
Fabian Schar’s goal line clearance to prevent what had looked a certain goal, summing up why this match ended without a goal.
Always worth listening to, Jurgen Klopp was asked about a new year’s wish and stated: ‘2020 had one highlight and a lot of challenges – that was becoming champions and all the rest were big, big challenges. We will face a few more challenges in life, but I am quite happy that 2020 is nearly over now, to be honest. How I said, apart from becoming champions, it is not a year I will think a lot about in the future.’
A classy answer considering just how brilliant Liverpool were last season, rounding off an astonishing Premier League season with a 3-1 win at St James Park that saw them drop just 15 points over the entire 38 matches.
I think we will all join Jurgen Klopp in agreeing that quite happy to see the back of 2020, with hopes of better to come.
Jurgen Klopp post-Newcastle press conference as quoted by official Liverpool site:
On whether he is content with the performance against Newcastle United…
“I’m not happy about the result but the game is already played. I’m not overly frustrated or something like that – it’s football, if you don’t use your chances then it’s difficult to win a game.
“But you can have a draw with a bad performance or you can have a draw with a good performance, and tonight we had a draw with a good performance. We just didn’t use the chances and that’s why I’m OK with the game. That’s it.”
On the contrast with the 7-0 win at Crystal Palace…
“Look, not scoring is a concern if you don’t create. That’s how it is. If you create, it’s just momentum, it’s for now. But if you keep creating then you will score, that’s it. I know we will score again, that’s not our problem in the moment.
“We needed to show a reaction from the second half against West Brom because in that game we lost the plot a little bit in the second half, it looked for me like we were 1-0 down not 1-0 up. Tonight it was a very good reaction on that, without getting the result.
“But we all know: you win this game 1-0 and everybody is over the moon. And we should have won it at least 1-0, but we didn’t. That’s what we have to accept.
“But I can work with this performance, that’s important. I can work with the things I saw tonight. We can build on that, we don’t have to now change massively in the next three or four days and say, ‘OK everything is going wrong, we have to try to compete another way.’ That’s why I’m OK, that’s it.”
On what his New Year’s wish will be…
“Traditionally, I’m now 53 and for around 30 years, I wish always at New Year only that my family stays healthy.
“That never happened with more conviction than this year because that is all I am concerned about. All the other problems we can sort, but this – what happened in 2020 – is a new experience for all of us. I didn’t need it, we all got it and now we deal with it and still have to deal with it. We have to stay disciplined.
“2020 had one highlight and a lot of challenges – that was becoming champions and all the rest were big, big challenges. We will face a few more challenges in life, but I am quite happy that 2020 is nearly over now, to be honest.
“How I said, apart from becoming champions, it is not a year I will think a lot about in the future.”
Stats from BBC Sport:
Newcastle 0 Liverpool 0 – Wednesday 30 December 8pm
Goals:
Newcastle:
Liverpool:
Possession was Liverpool 73% Newcastle 27%
Total shots were Liverpool 11 Newcastle 8
Shots on target Liverpool 4 Newcastle 2
Corners were Liverpool 12 Newcastle 5
Referee: Paul Tierney
Newcastle United:
Darlow, Yedlin, Fernandez, Schar, Clark, Matty Longstaff, Hayden, Ritchie (Lewis 86), Murphy (Almiron 67), Joelinton, Wilson
Unused Subs:
Dubravka, Shelvey, Carroll, Krafth, Gayle, Hendrick, Sean Longstaff
Crowd: 00,000
(Karl Darlow, MOTM, England and Alan Shearer – Just a normal night for Newcastle’s number one… – Read HERE)
(Newcastle 0 Liverpool 0 – Match ratings and comments on all the NUFC players – Read HERE)
(Alan Shearer gives his verdict on Newcastle 0 Liverpool 0 – Read HERE)
(Newcastle 0 Liverpool 0 – Instant NUFC fan/writer reaction to Wednesday’s draw – Read HERE)
(3 Positives and 3 Negatives from Newcastle 0 Liverpool 0 – Read HERE)
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