We have to continue to work on being a threat in the final third
Burnley were beaten 2-1 by Liverpool this afternoon with the winning goal coming deep into stoppage time and the two managers had their say after the final whistle.
Liverpool boss Jürgen Klopp said: “It was the most difficult circumstances for both teams, I would say, playing 48 hours ago. Both teams had an opponent which was motivated on the highest level, ready for these difficult circumstances with rain, wind and cold for the players.
“You need first of all concentration, readiness to work really hard, you need good organisation, discipline and stuff like that and, of course, a little bit of luck. We deserved the three points but a draw would have been absolutely ok as well and if we don’t score then even Burnley would have deserved it, it was just an open game.
“We wanted to have a high last line to help a little bit, but that means we need to be even more concentrated. As long as the game is open, one goal can be the winner. It looked for a while like that until Burnley scored and then we scored pretty much the twin of that goal, very similar. It is just difficult to defend when you lose the first header, which we did and which Burnley did, it’s an open ball in the six-yard box and is really difficult.
“You need to be there, and both teams were there. We were the lucky side, but, as I said, I am really happy about attitude, character and all that stuff. You need to win your average games, you need to win with your attitude when you are not 100 per cent best days. Character wise we were at 100 per cent, performance wise I’ve seen us already better football playing, but who cares?”
Sean Dyche felt his side deserved something from the game. “I’m frustrated, obviously with the final moments of the game because we delivered a good performance and deserved a point,” he said. “Sometimes though, these things happen. It’s a soft goal but it happens and not very often to us.
“You have to remember that’s virtually the same team I played the other day. There’s a lot of noise about not being able to do that, but everyone saw today that was a highly motivated group of players going hard to win a game.
“The margins of football are unbelievably tight. We were a bit unfortunate at Manchester United, then dominated at Huddersfield and had a clear penalty not given, and unfortunate again today, but there has to be a performance level and I’ve been delighted with that over this Christmas period, especially when we are at stretch at the moment with the squad as thin as it’s been for a while.
“We’ve done everything we can to get something out of it against a Liverpool team that, towards the end, are taking time over throw ins and free kicks and killing the game and wasting time. That’s a marker in itself; to have a team like that resort to that against Burnley. That hasn’t always been the case, trust me!”
Speaking about the line ups, he added: “There was a lot made of them being without a few players today, but I looked at four of their front five and they were all brought in for over £30m. That tells me they are still a fine side, make no mistake, but I felt we kept them quiet for long periods today.
“So, although there is a frustration in the final few minutes, there’s also a lot of pride in how the team has moved forwards from a year ago. We have to continue to work on being a threat in the final third, but there’s huge progress been made in this squad.”
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