Jurgen Klopp admitted the sight of his Liverpool side conceding from a familiar Everton set-piece routine felt 'horrendous' as he watched on from the touchline on Wednesday night. The Reds suffered a 2-0 defeat to their local rivals which could prove costly with only four Premier League games left to play.
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Liverpool couldn't afford a slip-up at Goodison Park, with Klopp hoping to pip Arsenal and Manchester City to the league title in his final season on Merseyside. But goals from Jarrad Branthwaite and Dominic Calvert-Lewin consigned his side to a damaging loss.
Branthwaite opened the scoring with a scruffy goal which snuck under Alisson and trickled over the line before Calvert-Lewin headed in at the back post to cap off a well-worked routine.
"2-0, the Everton routine, and it still works," a forlorn Klopp told beIN Sports after the final whistle. "Horrendous. Difficult to accept but I have to do it anyway."
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Liverpool are now three points behind table-toppers Arsenal, who thrashed Chelsea 5-0 on Tuesday night. Manchester City, meanwhile, are only one point further back with two games in hand on the Reds.
"We let it become exactly the game Everton wanted," Klopp continued in an interview with Sky Sports. "Two goals from set pieces, even when the first one wasn't... whatever. They are really strong on set pieces.
"We created a lot and didn't score. In the second half we had emotions, we were in a rush, [sigh], then we concede a second goal with a routine they do all season. We knew exactly the ball would end up there, we just didn't defend it well enough.
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"They had free-kick after free-kick, that's an important part of the story as well. But we were not good enough, we have to admit that."
Liverpool must pick themselves up and dust themselves down ahead of a trip to West Ham for the early kick-off slot on Saturday afternoon. The title race is now firmly out of their hands but Klopp has called on his players to do what they can to rediscover their rhythm.
He added: "I didn't expect that today but it happened anyway. It's not the greatest moment we are in and we still have to play football games. We have to get the momentum back. We had a bit after the Fulham game. Everton are tricky to defend, they really throw everything into these situations and we couldn't deal with that."
