by Jurgen Klopp and Virgil van Dijk admitted that Liverpool were only to blame after taking more points in the Premier League title race as they failed to beat Manchester United again.
Liverpool missed the most chances and United came from behind to take the lead before Mohamed Salah’s 84th minute penalty saved a point for Klopp’s side in a chaotic 2-2 draw at Old Trafford.
The result left Arsenal top of the Premier League table on goal difference and, for Liverpool, there were echoes of their 0-0 draw at home to United in December, when they had 34 shots but paid a price their multiplicity.
Liverpool mustered 28 shots on Sunday and at one stage attempted 15 unanswered shots in the game but United captain Bruno Fernandes capitalized on Jarell Quansah’s poor mistake to cancel out Luis Diaz’s opener with a superb equaliser, before another superb strike from. Kobbie put Mainoo United ahead.
The combined number of shots in their two league games against United this season is the most by any team since records began 21 years ago, and they asked if it was a setback Liverpool prospect Klopp – who saw his side lose 4-3 here in a dramatic FA Cup quarter-final last month – said: “It does. We should have won the game but we created a few problems for ourselves.
“You shouldn’t always do what we do today, that’s not enough [in the title race], definitely not. But we know that.
“Obviously the feelings are mixed. I am happy with many parts of the game, to be 1-0 up at Old Trafford and to have a shot stat of 15-0 is incredible.
“There was something around the end that was an exceptional goalkeeper [from Andre Onana], which was true in one case with Dom Szoboszlai, an incredible save. In addition we should and could be quieter and clearer at times.
“2-2: I’m not excited about it, I don’t think it’s the best result I’ve ever seen but I’m fine.
“We played two games [in the league] and he got two points [against United] and it was lifted to the FA Cup [by them]. But in all the time I’ve been here I don’t think we’ve ever dominated United like we did in these two games but we didn’t get the results.
“Obviously there is room for improvement, which we knew anyway. We will continue with everything we have.”
Van Dijk: ‘It’s our fault again’
Van Dijk said Liverpool can’t lose as much if they want to win the league. Asked if it felt like a blow, the Liverpool captain said: “Of course. It’s all our fault again. We should have been 2-0 up at half time at least. We created a danger. They were under our control. It’s just embarrassing, you know?
“It was definitely lost at this point because we wasted our chances, which makes them really important. Unfortunately individual mistakes can happen in a game but there was still so much time to fix it but we were in a hurry.
“We were losing too many balls and challenges. It feels like a loss. We had so many chances and we should have finished the game.”
Arsenal still have to visit Old Trafford before the end of the season and Klopp said he could not see Mikel Arteta’s side struggling and losing if United played in the same way.
Asked if he expected United to win that day, Klopp said: “Probably. If we are still around then that would be great. But Arsenal is a good football team. If they are [United] play like today, Arsenal will win, I’m 100 percent sure. I’m sorry to say that. We should have won both [league] games [against United] but it wasn’t.”
Klopp praised Quansah for not letting the mistake affect his game. “As a football player in the Premier League and playing for Liverpool, I have the bad news – this is not the last mistake in his life, unfortunately,” he said.
“I thought he handled it very well, we handled it well. But when our idols in the past made these kind of mistakes there was no social media so I hope he is smart enough to turn that off.
“It’s not a great situation but there are more mistakes in football. Certainly no blame or criticism, not at all, it just happens. He will learn from it and that’s the best thing that could happen.”
Ten Hag proud of display despite ‘stupid mistakes’
United trail fourth-placed Spurs and fifth-placed Aston Villa by 11 points and Erik ten Hag said he had “very mixed feelings” after seeing his side fight back to lead but to more points was thrown again late in a game after the 1-1 draw against Brentford and a 4-3 win at Chelsea.
“On the one hand I’m disappointed that we’ve dropped seven points in one week after being in winning positions, but we have to blame ourselves for making stupid mistakes,” said the United manager. “On the other hand I am very proud. “In decisive areas we were losing battles especially with young players we were not confident of winning them [duels]. We encouraged in the second half to do better and they got up.
“It’s very disappointing when three times a week you put yourself in a winning position right before the end of the game but then drop points, we’ve all seen some bad decisions.
“All three games had bad decisions and it wasn’t the same players every time. What doesn’t help is that we have 27 different shapes in the back line, the routines are not there, but still we have to improve. The sooner the better.”
