A miserable Jurgen Klopp claimed only four Liverpool players emerged with any credit from Saturday’s damaging 4-1 defeat against Manchester City.
Qualification for the Champions League now looks to be beyond the Reds who recovered from conceding the opening goal to blow away opponents who have been their closes rivals in recent seasons.
The chasm between the two teams was underlined after the break as goals from Kevin De Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan and Jack Grealish reflected City’s near total dominance.
A dejected Klopp could only admire City’s display and was able to name only a quartet of Liverpool players who delivered OK performances.
‘We had around about four performances were OK the two midfielders, Hendo and Fab worked a lot tried to close gaps. Cody, especially in possession and Ali of course,’ reflected Klopp.
‘And then that’s obviously very difficult if you want to get something from here then you have to have 14 or 15 players on top of their game and that was not the case.’
Speaking earlier to BT Sport, Klopp admitted all hope was lost once City opened up a two-goal lead and he could only watch on forlornly as Liverpool’s opponents were allowed to do whatever they wanted.
‘I think we saw a first half which you Could expect: a dominant City side with us well organised, having our moments. We caused problems and scored a wonderful goal and had another big counter-attacking moment. where we could have played it better.
‘At 1-1 at half-time, it’s clear, you can show the boys what we have to do and where we have to defend them. The key areas are clear; if you don’t control the double (No) 6, you have a real problem if you don’t control the double (No) 10.
‘Then it’s pretty much impossible to play because the pitch becomes too big. We concede the first goal — an open ball in midfield where we don’t even have a challenge — then outside we are too deep and the counter-attack happens.
‘If you are too deep, too passive then they use that immediately — 2-1, 3-1. (At) 3-1, we have a massive overload on one side. We should win the ball but don’t even have the challenge. These kinds of things absolutely cannot happen, but they happened.
‘After that, we were just open, like, wow. They could do whatever they wanted and we just had to follow.
‘We were lucky they weren’t in the most greedy mood. They scored a fourth one but then they were happy. Apart from that, there is nothing good to say about this game.’
