Liverpool coach, Jurgen Klopp has said that he is concerned by his team’s away form after they suffered their eighth loss of the campaign to Bournemouth on Saturday, March 11. Bournemouth took the lead against the run of play with a 28th-minute opener. January arrival Dango Ouattara raced away from Virgil van Dijk and cut the ball back for Bournemouth top scorer Billing to poke home from close range. With just 20 minutes left in the game, Liverpool was awarded a penalty after referee John Brooks consulted the VAR screen and penalized Adam Smith for handball when he blocked a goal-bound header from substitute Diogo Jota. Mohamed Sallah, however, failed to convert the penalty as he shot the ball well wide of Neto’s right-hand post. The result sees Bournemouth climb off the bottom of the table to 16th, while Liverpool stays fifth ahead of the rest of the weekend’s fixtures.
Speaking to reporters after the match, Klopp said; “I am concerned, yes. I see it. I see it. The home record, we are in the top four if I am right but away games we are not even in the European places. There is always a reason for the situation you are in and the away record is for sure. We could have had more points at home as well, not that we should have but away from home, definitely. “It was a big strength of us in the last few years, we never made a difference between [home and away] but that is what happens when you do the right things consistently in the right way. And with the quality we have, we have a good chance to win away from home as well, just this season not often enough. It’s a clear point to be honest. “Setbacks are setbacks but we are in the position we’re in because of the good performances as well. We didn’t only have setbacks but today was a proper one, no doubt about that. Yes, now we have to deal with it and we will.
“One thing we’ve learned this season is to deal with setbacks and we have to make sure we recover properly because we obviously have a big game Wednesday (against Real Madrid), then it is the international break and I hope everyone comes back healthy. Then we have the football week of all football week opponent-wise. “There is a lot to go for but now is not the moment for me to talk about that. It was a massive knock here and how it is with knocks, you have to take them, see how big the scars are and then we take it from there.”
