Jurgen Klopp claims Aston Villa were “screwed” in the second half of their clash with Liverpool at Anfield, as Unai Emery’s side came within minutes of securing a win on Merseyside. Roberto Firmino scored in the 89th minute to level the game for Liverpool after Jacob Ramsey opened the scoring for Villa in the first half. The Villa midfielder, who made his 100th appearance for the club this afternoon, put the visitors ahead after Ollie Watkins missed a penalty. Villa were close to hanging on to what would have been a memorable win at Anfield, but Firmino’s goal pegged them back late on, and Klopp insisted that his side should have gone on to win the match.
Jurgen Klopp said: “Frustrating wherever you sit. We made it a proper fight – chasing the Champions League in general. They got more points. We would have loved to have made it exciting for another week but we couldn’t do that. I asked the boys after the game, who was really, really good today? It was difficult to find one. But the character we showed was good. Aston Villa were screwed in the second half and they didn’t know how to deal with it. The time wasting was… wow. We saw against Sevilla the ball boys left the country, Roma against Leverkusen, how long was the ball in play? Ten minutes [added time] was fine, but we should have an extra five minutes within the 10. Everybody is doing it. We have seen in too many games this season, it has nothing to do with the result today, just a general football subject.”
Asked what he made of Emi Martinez time-wasting following his 77th-minute booking,
Jurgen Klopp replied: “It is really difficult, I think it is an important thing to talk about but I am afraid you’ll make it. I think the problem is obvious. You say it’s like smart and if you [time-waste] like that it’s fine but I think the whole season you saw it too often. It’s not always time-wasting it’s a rhythm-breaker as well. You’re in the last minute and you’re is really going for it and then all of a sudden an opponent player goes down. I think today was obvious 10 minutes was OK, you just have the feeling that in these 10 minutes there could have been another five. That’s a bit of a problem. Again, it’s nothing to do with the result or the day or in our season. But it would be cool if we could talk about that as well. I think 15 minutes [added time] would have been all right. We have to talk about that.”
