Jurgen Klopp called out the ‘mistake’ by Liverpool skipper Virgil van Dijk that led to a dramatic fightback from Aston Villa after the Reds had led 3-1. On a dramatic night at Villa Park, Emiliano Martinez blundered for an early own goal, and although Youri Tielemans levelled a Cody Gakpo strike and Jarrell Quansah’s header had the Reds cruising.
But things unravelled with five minutes left. There was little sign of danger when Van Dijk picked up the in his own area, but the Dutchman then needlessly put Mac Allister under pressure with a pass into the Argentinian.
Chambers duly possessed him, and the ball fell to Jhon Duran who fired a low shot home from the edge of the area. Just two minutes later the same player made it 3-3, diverting in Moussa Diaby’s pass to leave Alisson stranded in the Liverpool goal.
The late chaos followed Klopp making a quadruple substitution on the 75 minute mark, but afterwards the German boss argued the changes were necessary and pointed to Van Dijk’s error. “Before we changed, we gave them too many chances,” he told Sky Sports.
“It was very intense for the boys. They created too much. They were too often in our box and we made the changes. Then we made a mistake. We shouldn’t have passed the ball there. It happens but in that moment, it opens the door.”
Despite the late capitulation, the 56-year-old did declare him pleased with the display, but admitted his side struggled once Dhuran had reduced the deficit. “The character from the boys tonight was outstanding in our situation,” he added.
“We wanted to win the game. In the moment, when we gave away the 3-2, that was really tricky. That’s it, that’s the story of the game.”
Same old Liverpool FC story repeating every single year…