Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has refused to blame goalkeeper Simon Mignolet for his error which contributed to his team’s capitulation during their 3-3 draw with Arsenal on Friday night.
The Reds looked like they were going to comfortably going to win the game at half-time as they led 2-0 through goals from Philippe Coutinho and Mohamed Salah.
However a defensive collapse from Klopp’s team allowed Arsenal to score three goals in the space of four minutes through Alexis Sanchez, Granit Xhaka and Mesut Ozil. Roberto Firmino did manage to rescue a point for the Reds with a late strike.
Mignolet was especially subjected to criticism after the game for his failure to keep out Xhaka’s strike which was from long- range.
However, Klopp did not criticize his keeper, saying: “He misjudged it. A second hand would have helped but that is how it is.
“You don’t need to make it bigger than it is. It felt like we shouldn’t have conceded but we did. It is difficult to explain, we should be three, four even five-nil up before we don’t defend a cross. It feels really strange.
“Defending is a team thing. Today we make individual mistakes and that is not cool. My job is to think about the performance and that was a winning performance. If you want, the draw is our halfway win.
“We are always a better side when we draw. We have to take the good things and work on the lesser good things.
“A point at Arsenal is a good result for most teams in the world but it feels not too good at the moment. We didn’t take all of our chances but three goals should be enough. Arsenal were not in the game apart from 10 minutes.
“We need to be angry with yourself, not sad or insecure. We came back into the game and scored our third. The point is the minimum we deserve.”
