An unhappy Jürgen Klopp suggested Liverpool might not have beaten even a 10-man Manchester City after his side lost 4-1. While Liverpool took the lead through Mohamed Salah, by half-time Julián Álvarez had equalised and after the break City took charge, as Kevin De Bruyne, Ilkay Gündogan, and Jack Grealish scored to rout the visitors.
Klopp was asked about Liverpool players surrounding the referee, Simon Hooper, in the first half, wanting him to give Rodri a second booking for a foul. The Liverpool manager said: “I didn’t see it good enough, Could he have got a second yellow? Yeah, probably, he will not get it now. I am not sure we would have wanted to play against 10 men.
“Four performances were OK: the two midfielders [Jordan] Henderson and Fabinho worked a lot, Cody [Gakpo] and Alisson. If you want to get something here 14 or 15 players have to be on top of their game and that was not the case.
“At 3-1 down it is difficult to come back here – we had a situation for 3-2 when Robbo [Andy Robertson] broke through but apart from that City could do what they wanted because the spaces were too big so we were lucky they only scored one more.”
De Bruyne’s goal came seconds into the second half and Klopp was unable to explain why his team had switched off. “No,” he said. “You don’t know 100% if the team started like that or [some] players. I have no clue why the challenges were not there. I don’t know what it is really to explain but we saw what we saw.”
When Álvarez scored Pep Guardiola celebrated in front of the Liverpool substitute Kostas Tsimikas, who was warming up, which might have been understood as goading him. City’s manager bridled when asked. “‘You think it was a lack of respect?” he said. When the questioner stated that he did, Guardiola said: “Ah, sorry.”
Liverpool’s coach sustained damage on its return journey from an object thrown at it, leading to City saying in a statement: “Incidents of this kind are totally unacceptable, and we strongly condemn the actions of the individual(s) responsible.”
City also apologised for inappropriate chanting from their fans aimed at the visiting supporters. “Manchester City FC are disappointed to have heard inappropriate chants from home fans during today’s game,” a statement said. “We regret any offence these chants may have caused and will continue to work with supporters groups and officials from both clubs to eradicate hateful chanting from this fixture.”
The Premier League added in a statement: “The Premier League condemns the chanting heard during today’s match between Manchester City and Liverpool. The League is treating the issue of tragedy chanting as a priority and as a matter of urgency.”
