Jurgen Klopp has criticised Liverpool’s openness following the club’s 1-0 friendly defeat to Red Bull Salzburg in Austria.
Liverpool’s pre-season campaign came to an end with a 1-0 loss to the Austrian champions, as Benjamin Sesko’s first-half finish secured a narrow win for Salzburg at the Red Bull Arena.
The Reds were far from their best and failed to build on a 5-0 thrashing of RB Leipzig on Thursday, though the clash provided Klopp with a chance to give minutes to 22 players ahead of this weekend’s Community Shield clash with Manchester City at the King Power Stadium.
An inexperienced line-up including teenagers Isaac Mabaya, Stefan Bajcetic, Harvey Elliott and Fabio Carvalho began the game, before a host of senior names were introduced in the second period.
Salzburg – who have already began their defence of the Austrian Bundesliga – proved tough opposition and Klopp said his side ‘made too many mistakes’ in the defeat.
“First half we made too many mistakes, which they could use,” Klopp told the club’s official website.
“We had good moments as well, we could have scored obviously in the whole game like four or five goals at least. Didn’t do that because we were in the first half – if you want to talk about football – we were too open, we were too wide, we were not connected enough in moments when you lose the ball.
“Then everything is open, it’s like a motorway, and with their speed that’s how they had their chances, especially when you lose simple passes where nobody can react.”
Klopp was asked whether the club’s young players would learn from the experience, but insisted all of his squad ‘can do much better’ than their performance in Austria.
“All the boys can do much better, it’s not about that. We played in the first half against a team who might play Champions League, they have to qualify probably but they might play. And it’s a tough task for the line-up we chose.
“How I said, they do extremely well and we played in their cards. When you play football but you are not connected, you lose the ball, it means there’s always space to use for the counter-attack. And that’s what we gave them. And that’s what we have to learn. That’s what we know but in the first half maybe we didn’t know it good enough and that’s why we conceded the goal.”
