Jurgen Klopp lamented the two moments of sloppiness that undermined ‘a good game’ from his team after Liverpool slipped to a 2-1 defeat at Arsenal.
The Reds carved out a deserved lead in the 20th minute as a well-worked move ended in Sadio Mane smashing Andy Robertson’s low cross home.
However, Arsenal capitalised on loose passes from Virgil van Dijk and Alisson Becker to score through Alexandre Lacazette and Reiss Nelson before the break.
And, despite racking up 24 shots in total and restricting their opponents to just one more effort at goal from that point on, the visitors could not turn the game back in their favour.
Reflecting on the reasons for that, Klopp told Sky Sports: “Twice, massive lack of concentration. We took a break after we scored the 1-0.
“Especially in the first half before the goal, we were just brilliant, it was really good, we had 24 to three shots, that’s incredible.
“But these two moments killed the game for us obviously.
“We had to chase the game in the second half, did that, Arsenal had no real chances, I think they had another shot in the last second maybe.
“So, we did a lot of things well, but you cannot win football games when you concede goals like this of course.”
Liverpool’s lapses at the back were all the more surprising given that their runaway title success this term has been built on a miserly defence.
But Klopp insisted his players will learn from their errors, and played down suggestions that they had been particularly poor on the night.
He added: “I’m not sure we never did it, we had sloppy moments once, twice, maybe three times, but usually we didn’t get punished for it.
“Tonight we got punished for it, that’s good on one side because we have to learn from it, it’s not allowed.
“The boys saw in that moment they need a break, it’s right to take a break, it’s not right but you saw afterwards we were completely fresh.
“There was no physical problem, we were there, we were constantly dominant, played around and stuff like this.
“I know how it sounds and I know what people make of it but it was a good game - you have 24 to three shots, what can you do more? Apart from you have to hit the target, that helps.
“Arsenal were there in these situations, I’m not sure they forced us for the mistakes but they were there and used them and that’s why they lost.”
