You don’t expect to come to Anfield and out-pass them
Burnley came home with a point from Liverpool but it was a point home boss Jürgen Klopp didn’t think we deserved, insisting after the final whistle that his team’s performance merited more than the one point.
“That’s why I’m still not in the perfect mood, I would say,” were Klopp’s feelings. “It feels strange, it feels wrong, but it’s a fact, we drew.
“A lot of parts of the game I was really happy with. We made seven changes but it was still really fluent, it looked like proper football, offensive football, dominant football, possession football how it should be.
“We created moments. You cannot create in each situation a finishing situation, but we did it absolutely often enough. It could have been more often, of course, because with one better decision here or there then we would have had a few more, but it was the best game against Burnley since I’m here, obviously not result-wise but performance-wise for sure.”
He thought his team should have had a penalty and added: “We were unlucky, I would say, in and around the penalty situation. For me, it’s a penalty, I cannot change this even when I saw the pictures back after the game.
“It was a very disciplined performance of the opponent, and also disciplined of my side. This one goal, that’s where we have to improve the most, to switch the mood in being offensive, being offensive, being offensive, do, do, do all the time, and then this one situation, a little block here and we missed Arfield, or forgot him, and he can score then. So it doesn’t feel good.”
It did feel good for Sean Dyche though who saw his plan win Burnley another point on the road. “I mention it a lot, but my players will grow from experiences like today,” he said.
“It was a hard-earned point and I thought the belief in the group, the responsibility to do the ugly stuff was on show today again. We weren’t as good with the ball as we have been in previous weeks, but it’s different here. You don’t expect to come to Anfield and out-pass them, and we never planned for that, so the game plan isn’t about keeping the ball.
“We came here to play from our shape and deliberately went even longer to unnerve them a bit and put them on the back foot when we could. For patches that worked, but generally it is about shape, discipline and belief in how you can defend properly. We put that all together into a performance today and got something from the game.”
Again he saw his defence play well and that included Nick Pope who was making his first Premier League start in goal. “I thought the back unit were excellent, and, of course the units in front of them,” Dyche said.
“They were two big saves from Popey. The first one gets a nick and he gets a hand up to it, and then the second, when he touches it onto the bar is a great save. At the other end though, we have had two headers from Ben Mee cleared off the line, so in terms of good chances we were about even.
“We’re still adapting to the Premier League and the secret of our success through the years, and our fans know this, is that some days you are going to have to be like that, when we work diligently and take any chances that come our way.”
That’s five points from away games at Chelsea, Spurs and Liverpool. “You look at that fixture list when it came out and think it’s a tough start,” said the delighted manager. “I don’t think anyone would have given us a chance of getting five points, but the important thing is, we do.”
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