Klopp frustrated by lacklustre Liverpool

Jurgen Klopp had no complaints as his much-changed Liverpool side were comfortably beaten 3-1 by Swansea City in the Premier League on Sunday.

With the trip falling between the two legs of their Europa League semi-final against Villarreal, and having lost the first match of the tie 1-0 at El Madrigal last week, Klopp gave a raft of youngsters a rare league start, Swansea taking full advantage.

First-half goals from Andre Ayew and Jack Cork put the hosts in the ascendancy at Liberty Stadium, and although Christian Benteke pulled a goal back in the 65th minute, a comeback was not forthcoming.

Two minutes later Ayew doubled his tally to seal the three points for Swansea, and Liverpool – who saw Brad Smith sent off late on – were left to rue a missed opportunity to close in on a European place.

“It is a deserved defeat because of our performance today,” Klopp told BT Sport. 

“I think the only real chance was at 2-1, we were in the game, we had a better situation than in the first half.

“In the first half we gave away a lot of easy balls, it was too easy for Swansea. We changed [at half-time], at 2-1 it was ok, but then [it was quickly] 3-1. It was not our day today.

“The performance [was not good enough], effort was not the problem, we played like we played, we could have played much better with this line-up but we didn’t.”