Jurgen Klopp tells Liverpool stars to ‘put things right’ against Aston Villa as Reds boss admits that 7-2 hammering of his champions last October revealed problems ‘we had never had before’
- Jurgen Klopp has told his Liverpool stars to ‘put thing right’ against Aston Villa
- The Reds suffered a devastating 7-2 defeat to Dean Smith’s side in October
- Klopp said the loss highlighted certain problems he had not seen before
- The German says Saturday’s game is an opportunity to avenge the defeat
Jurgen Klopp has told his Liverpool stars to ‘put right’ their 7-2 defeat to Aston Villa as the Reds boss revealed the hammering showed problems he had not seen before in his side.
The Premier League champions host Dean Smith‘s side at Anfield for the first time since they suffered the shock thrashing at Villa Park last October, as Ollie Watkins and Jack Grealish ran riot to put seven past the Reds.
Villa have maintained their strong form throughout the campaign and are still targeting a place in European football next season, while Liverpool are in the hunt for a top four spot.
Jurgen Klopp has called on his Liverpool stars to ‘put things right’ against Aston Villa at Anfield
And Klopp reflected that the 7-2 defeat ‘should not happen’ and says that his stars now have the opportunity to ‘put things right’ when they take on the Villans on Saturday.
‘We have to put things right,’ the German said in his pre-match press conference. ‘Things like this should not happen but it happened to us. I have the game in my mind and we have to put things right for sure.
‘You cannot put a game like this one aside immediately, that is not possible. We have had a lot of games but we had to work with it.’
Klopp added that the demolition of his side in the West Midlands highlighted flaws in the champions that he had not previously been aware of, although he added that there were certain issues that had been on his mind.
The Reds suffered a humiliating 7-2 defeat to the Villans when they last met in October
Klopp revealed that the defeat revealed problems he had not seen before in his champions
‘A lot of things showed us in that game which were a problem. Problems that day, problems we have had before, problems we have never had before.
‘Of course we work with it. In this case for sure we spoke about it quite frequently. It differs, how long it takes for me to get over a game, usually especially after a win my mindset is immediately the next game but we have to reflect on past games.
‘I watch all the games back and i better understand what happened in the game and why it happened.’
Liverpool are looking to bounce back from their defeat to Real Madrid in the first leg of their Champions League quarter final in midweek, in which the Spaniards deservedly ran out 3-1 winners.
Liverpool are looking for a response after losing to Real Madrid in the Champions League
Midfielder Naby Keita was withdrawn before half time as Klopp attempted to change the game, and the Liverpool boss said he has spoken with the 26-year-old about his decision.
‘He [Keita] has played good games for us, scored important goals for us but you ask the question because of the early substitution and it was a decision I made in that moment.
‘We had to sort the game and it’s tough to do that without a change. We spoke about it yesterday, I explained the decision and he accepted it and we have moved on.’