Jurgen Klopp congratulates Bournemouth after Liverpool's horror show

Jurgen Klopp congratulates Bournemouth after Liverpool's horror show

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Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has felt that his side handed Bournemouth their dramatic 4-3 win on Sunday by making all the wrong decisions in the final quarter of the game. The German also backed goalkeeper Loris Karius saying that it was not easy for him to keep out Nathan Ake's winning goal.

Liverpool were 2-0 up at half-time at the Vitality Stadium through goals from Sadio Mane and Divock Origi, and Emre Can appeared to seal the win in the 64th minute when he scored the third shortly after Bournemouth had scored from a penalty. But, the hosts made a stunning comeback, with Ryan Fraser and Steve Cook scoring twice in two minutes before Nathan Ake scored the winner in the third minute of injury time to register a last-gasp 4-3 victory for Bournemouth.

Following this shocking loss, Jurgen Klopp congratulated Sunday's hosts on their victory.

"It's absolutely a deserved win for Bournemouth - congratulations on this performance and this big fight," he told Sky Sports.

He further added: "I think for a long part of the game we were the better side, but in the decisive moment we gave the game away. We opened the door and Bournemouth ran through with all they had. They stayed in the game and scored some wonderful goals, which they forced, so it's absolutely deserved.”

Liverpool's defending grew worse with every passing minute towards the end of the second half, and Klopp was self-critical of his team's performance.

"We gave the ball away, without reason, and played the wrong passes at the wrong moment. Things like this happen, this is not the biggest and the most serious thing in life, but in football it can lead to a result,” the 49-year old said.

The defeat puts Liverpool in the third place, a point behind Arsenal, and four points away from leaders Chelsea. But Klopp refused to give up on the title challenge.

"It's three points, no more. You cannot be champions in December. You cannot be relegated or promoted, you can only create the base. The base is still pretty good," the German said.

Klopp also defended the performance of goalkeeper Loris Karius, whose last-minute fumble led to Bournemouth's fourth goal.

“Look, I’m sure people criticised Jamie Carragher in his career. I have no concerns [with Karius]. If you make mistakes, you get criticised. That’s what happens in life, so I have no problem with that. So if people want to say we’re blind, silly, not good enough, then do it. We missed chances today but do we have good strikers? Yes we do. And the last goal was not easy for a goalkeeper. It says nothing about him as a goalkeeper. It happens,” the former Mainz boss mused.

He added: “I knew there would be moments like this. There is no attitude or character problem here. We have been 100% before now, and we were 99% today, but it’s quite simple to go back up to 100%.”

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