Klopp happy with Liverpool draw after De Bruyne’s missed opportunity

Liverpool FC manager, Jürgen Klopp, was happy with his team’s performance on Sunday night’s match against Manchester City despite a draw in the City of Manchester Stadium. The score at full time was 1-1 for the red and light-blue-themed teams, though the talking point of the match was a missed opportunity for Kevin De Bruyne, who missed a penalty caused by the new handball regulation for the 2020/2021 season.

When asked my a BBC Sport reporter if he was a happy Liverpool manager, the German responded with “Yeah, absolutely – because I liked the performance. It was a very interesting game with a lot of tactical stuff on the pitch, but filled with life and energy; and both teams played on an incredible energy level to close the other team down to use the few opportunities to work and play for them. I thought it was a top, top game.”

Mohamed Salah was the only Liverpool player to score last night with a goal during the 13th minute. Robertson was given the ball by the number 5 player of Georginio Wijnaldum, and was quickly finding himself being marked by City’s Ferran Torres. Robertson dribbled his way past Torres and passed the ball to Mane on the edge of the box, who started pushing into the box to take a shot on the goal. 

The number 10 was tripped up in the penalty box by Kyle Walker, gifting Liverpool the first penalty of the game that was scored easily by Salah. The penalty itself was a textbook shot to the left hand side of the net.

Fast-forward to the 31st minute and it was Gabriel Jesus who scored a fantastic goal for City to put equalise the two teams. Walker crossed the ball from the right-hand side of the pitch into the path of De Bruyne, who was quick to send the ball to Jesus, who was also being marked. The number 9 flicked the ball behind him with his heel and made and tucked the ball into the lower-left of the net.

Manchester City would continue to attack Liverpool, with De Bruyne soon taking a shot from far outside the box when space emerged for the 29-year old to take a risky shot – though his shot was off-target.

De Bruyne would one again be challenging up the right-hand side of the pitch, where he attempted to cross the ball over to Jesus in the box, but the ball deflected off the arm of Liverpool’s Joe Gomez. De Bruyne threw his arms in the air to express the hand-ball, and the referee opted to use the controversial VAR system to make a decision on the matter.

A harsh (to Liverpool) penalty was awarded to Manchester City, but De Bruyne once again sent the ball wide and missed City’s best opportunity at scoring a goal to put them ahead of the reigning champions. When asked about the new handball system, Klopp explained “I haven’t seen it yet, but of course handball is a problem, but from a close distance I don’t really have a lot I can say.”

Klopp was not upset by the handball penalty that was awarded and simply addressed it as a problem, though he continued to explain that a big problem within the Premier League at the moment is the timing of the matches. The 53-year old explained that the gap between Wednesday evening’s match and Saturday afternoon’s match was not enough time for the players to properly recover. The Liverpool manager explained that 12:30pm is too early for players to be playing as “they wake up and start playing” and wishes for the match to be pushed back a few hours. “If you want to have good football, you have to give the boys a few hours more. We don’t ask for next day or Monday night.”

On the other side of the pitch was Manchester City’s manager – Pep Guardiola – who was asked if he was happy with the game. “Yeah, fair result, tight game. We were struggling in the first minutes because they were playing with four players at the front when they usually play with three. But we adjusted after, we had more control and we did it better. Unfortunately we missed our penalty, but we know how difficult it is because they are a fantastic team. The way we played was incredible, I’m so delighted with my players.”

Last night’s match between Manchester City and Liverpool saw both team score one point each to contribute to the standings, which currently sees Leicester City at the top with a 6-0-2 win-draw-loss tally and 18 points. Meanwhile, Liverpool are currently sitting in third place in the standings, with an identical tally to Tottenham in second, with 5 wins, 2 draws and one loss, giving them both 17 points. Manchester City, however, have had a tough start to the season with 3 wins, 3 draws and one loss out of the seven matches they have played. The 2018/2019 champions will hope to win their next match against Tottenham on Saturday 21st November 2020 to take 3 important points home to help raise them up the table.

Joe McCormick