Steve Nicol and the rest of the FC pundits continue to be astonished by Jurgen Klopp's tactics in the back as Liverpool give away two easy goals. A missed penalty denied Liverpool the chance to make it five wins from five for English teams in UCL opening matches. Roberto Firmino missed a penalty in the first half that could have proved to be the deciding goal against Sevilla at Anfield. Jurgen Klopp says Liverpool's appeal of Sadio Mane's ban was a waste of time.
LIVERPOOL -- Jurgen Klopp believes Liverpool's defensive issues would not be solved by signing a certain defender after his side were frustrated by Sevilla on Wednesday night.
Liverpool were held to a 2-2 draw in their Group E Champions League opener, with their defensive frailties evident as the La Liga snatched a draw at Anfield.
First-half goals from Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah cancelled out Wissam Ben Yedder's opener after five minutes.
Firmino hit the post from a penalty kick shortly before half-time, and Liverpool were made to pay for their lack of ruthlessness when Joaquin Correa equalised in the 72nd minute.
Speaking at his postmatch news conference, Klopp said: "The first goal starts in a situation in the midfield when we can shoot the ball easily away.
"Emre [Can] is a little bit late in the situation, that's the first moment I realise something will happen. Until then, it was a nothing situation. That's a press ball, in the half-space on the left-hand side, and in the end, I think it was through the legs of Dejan, I don't know exactly how it was.
"That's not, in the end, perfectly defended but I have to see it again. It's, of course, concentration, it's nothing else in this situation.
"We started the game how I thought we could -- kind of dominant, played football, kind of good moments and that was pretty much their first offensive situation and then they scored. That's a mixture of being a little bit unlucky and being through the wind -- how we say in Germany.
"But then you got it and then you have to react, and we reacted. We kept on playing football and that's very, very important."
Klopp then alluded to Liverpool's failed pursuit of Southampton defender Virgil van Dijk, but rejected the notion that he alone could have provided a solution.
Virgil van Dijk remains with Southampton while Liverpool could use a defensive leader.
"I know here, you're always looking for this thing, so the defence was always something we were talking about -- [we] didn't sign this or that and all that stuff.
"But, if these problems would have been sorted with one player, you could imagine we would put all our money in and say: 'Come on, let's do this.'
"It's not about this, it's kind of this being dominant and losing a little bit the grip on the game. That's all space for improvement for all of us.
"We need to learn to be dominant and not to give easy goals away and the first one was, for sure, not necessary and too easy.
"The second, I have absolutely no clue how they came through that, to be honest, I have to see that again. It's not a general defending problem but we have to improve, 100 percent."
Liverpool could only settle for a 2-2 draw after showing some defensive frailties against Sevilla on Wednesday.
Despite dropping two points, Klopp insists he was happy with large parts of Liverpool's dominant performance over Sevilla.
The Reds had 24 shots in total, but wasted a number of golden chances to secure the win and top the group after the first round of European fixtures.
"It's a results game, they scored twice, we scored twice, so then it's a draw," the Liverpool manager continued. "Frustrated? I'm not sure about this word but I'm not happy of course about this, but I am happy about a big part of the game.
"We tried to ignore the result of last weekend, but as we all know, we are human beings and that takes away confidence, and I saw we were really spot on from the first second, we played a good game.
"A lot of times when two good sides play each other then it's kind of boring [but] I think this game today was the opposite.
"The main reason for this was the desire, the greed and the passion of my team, and all respect for Sevilla because they never gave up.
"They were lucky with the penalty for sure, maybe a second penalty [was] possible, [but] we had more chances and that's important that we have chances, that we create.
"Even against a defensively really well organised side, we created a lot of chances -- we didn't use them, that's the truth, but in football it's really important you keep on going.
"There is a lot from this game on which we can build and that's what we will try, of course."
Glenn is ESPN FC's Liverpool correspondent. You can follow him on Twitter: @GlennPrice94.
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Source: espn.co.uk