“Wow…” - Klopp unleashed fierce tirade against his Liverpool players after Man City demolition

Jurgen Klopp unleashed a fierce tirade against his players after Liverpool fell to a 4-1 defeat against Manchester City.

City demonstrated their all-round strength by coming from a goal down to ease past Liverpool, despite their 42-goal striker Erling Haaland having been ruled out through injury.

Mohamed Salah’s thumping first-half finish was cancelled out by Julian Alvarez before Pep Guardiola’s side netted three unanswered goals in the second period.

The victory saw City temporarily close the gap on title rivals Arsenal to five points, only for Mikel Arteta’s men to dispatch Leeds by the same scoreline hours later.

Meanwhile, Liverpool are now languishing in eighth place, some seven points adrift of a Champions League spot.

Klopp deeply critical of Liverpool side

After the game, Klopp was bemused by his Liverpool’s side's poor defending and lack of intensity.

The furious German lashed out at his players in his post-match interview.

Klopp told BT Sport: "I think we saw what we expected in the first half, a dominant City side with us organised, had our moments.

"So 1-1 at half-time. We can show the boys what to do, and where to defend them because the key areas are clear.

​​"If we don't defend the double six we have a real problem. If we don't defend the double 10 - Gundogan and De Bruyne - then it is pretty much impossible because the pitch becomes too big.

"We concede this first goal with I think an open ball in midfield where we don't even have a challenge then we are too deep and the counter-attack happens. Great play. 2-1.

"3-1 we have a massive overload on one side, should win the ball but don't even have a challenge.

"These kinds of things cannot happen. But they happened and after that... wow! We just had to follow as they did whatever they wanted. We were lucky they weren't in a greedy mood.

"About that, there is nothing good to say about this game. This is a game we have to use unfortunately and make clear which things cannot happen.

"We can not have challenges in key areas or be that open. Now I stand here and have to explain it but I cannot explain it.

"I cannot change it now, here, I can just report what I saw and we will talk about it tomorrow. These things happened too often."

Topics: Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool, Manchester City, Premier League, Pep Guardiola

Chris Byfield

Sport journalist with experience writing on football, rugby, boxing and the Olympics. I'm also a Crystal Palace fan. Please don't hold this against me.