Jurgen Klopp has explained the reasons why he feels his Liverpool side lost to Crystal Palace on Sunday.
The Reds took a 24th-minute lead at Anfield after Philippe Coutinho scored a sublime long-range free-kick, before a brace from Christian Benteke handed the Eagles a hard-fought victory.
Speaking after the defeat, Klopp attempted to give some insight into why Liverpool squandered their one-goal lead by conceding in the manner they did.
"I said it before the game and we knew it before the game – Crystal Palace are a really strong side with a specific [way] of playing football," said the German.
"Three things they do. The first long ball from (Wayne) Hennessey was obviously a really long ball. If they win this long ball then it's already dangerous. If they win the second ball but cannot go through, they play on the wings and cross to Christian Benteke. The rest is counter attack.
"Good and strong in this, quick players and all that stuff. We knew it. We dominated the game with all the threats around – each ball you lose could be a counter attack, each ball Hennessey has or another player has is immediately a long ball. Benteke and this long ball, you have to defend really clear because if you don't then it's a foul and wherever it is, it's again a set-piece from Hennessey or another player. But we did well. It was not perfect, of course not."
Klopp added: "It was not the most exciting game but we all have to learn that these games are not exciting.
"If you open it with 1-0, which we did, and you can then score the second, then the opponent maybe changes style of play and in the end there are spaces which they are not used to giving away, and you can use it. We couldn't, because we gave them the opportunity out of nothing to score the first goal.
"At the end, we tried everything, not at our best but it was not about attitude. The boys tried. We couldn't finalise often enough our effort. It feels really frustrating, of course. It's really harsh to accept when you think about the goals and how they did it.
"I know about their quality, that's how it is – their counter attacks are really good. We [dealt with] this well, but obviously not well enough."
