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Klopp: 'We have to wake up'

english premier league
hull liverpool
2 0
Alfred N'Diaye 44
Oumar Niasse 84
 

Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp did not mince his words after his side's shock 2-0 defeat by Hull City at the KCOM Stadium.

The Reds' calamitous freefall in 2017 continued with the unexpected loss, which may have put a fatal dent in their Premier League title hopes.

The German told the BBC after the game: "We gave both goals away easily, the overall performance was not like it should be.

"It makes no sense for us to play like this.

"If we played like we did in the second half for the whole game, no team can cope with us.

"But we need to wake up; that was not acceptable.

"I have a lot of thoughts at the moment and I can't even say a few of them right now because I really need to think about what happened."

Liverpool fell behind in the 44th minute when Alfred N'Diaye took advantage of goalkeeper Simon Mignolet's poor handling to bag a debut goal.

Stung, the visitors begun to dominate after the break but Philippe Coutinho was among those guilty of a shocking miss from close range, as a clearly frustrated Klopp pondered a dismal run that has seen the Reds win just once in 10 matches, and even then only against lowly Plymouth Argyle in the FA Cup.

To rub salt in Liverpool's wound, Hull's victory was sealed by a breakaway goal from on-loan Everton reject Oumar Niasse six minutes before the end.

Once again, Klopp's side dominated the ball but did not come close to making their 72 percent worth of possession count, even after they improved on their insipid first-half showing.

"We had a lot of possession, but what is possession?" he mused.

"Possession is only good if you create something. It was not like we expected from ourselves.

"We have to take the criticism, think about it, find a few answers and react.

"We have quality still but we have to show it, it's not to talk about it or to find excuses.

"Maybe a few teams have found a solution to us but that doesn't matter because we are making chances and should score goals."

The result meant Liverpool remained winless in their opening five top-flight matches of a calendar year for the first time since 1954, when they did not win any of their first 10.

For Hull, looking rejuvenated and well organised under new manager Marco Silva, the win dragged them from penultimate spot into 18th place.

- Wire services

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