Liverpool have spurned the opportunity to break the record for most points in a Premier League season.The Reds, who were crowned champions of England for the first time since 1990 last month, can no longer surpass Manchester City’s tally of 100 points.Liverpool were held to a surprise 1-1 draw by Burnley on Saturday and followed that result up with an even more disappointing 2-1 defeat away at Arsenal.Klopp’s side took the lead through Sadio Mane’s first-half strike, but two goals from Alexandre Lacazette and Reiss Nelson put the Gunners ahead before half-time.Both of Arsenal’s goals came from individual errors made by Liverpool players.Virgil van Dijk made an uncharacteristic mistake for Lacazette’s equaliser, while Nelson’s goal was created following a poor clearance by Alisson.Now, Klopp isn’t a particularly good loser, as we’ve seen in recent weeks.He can often be quite prickly in his post-match interviews whenever Liverpool suffer a poor result.And following his team’s 2-1 loss at the Emirates Stadium, Klopp was accused of taking an unnecessary and salty dig at David Luiz.Per the Liverpool Echo’s Paul Gorst, Klopp said to journalists: "Is someone surprised these boys [Alisson/Van Dijk] are humans? I am not. I need David Luiz? He's signed a new contract, eh?"
Many football fans - and not just Arsenal supporters - reacted badly to Klopp’s comment involving the Brazilian defender.Here was just a small selection of the reaction from social media…
However, footage from the actual press conference - which, of course, was conducted on Zoom due to the ongoing situation regarding Covid-19 - tells the whole story.Klopp was specifically asked about Luiz by one of the reporters on the call.While it’s true that the Liverpool boss said “he’s signed a new contract, right?” with a smile, this was not an unproved dig at Luiz.Watch the footage here...
Klopp was actually being polite by responding to the reporter’s decision to bring up Luiz.
Criticism for his response, in this instance, is harsh.
While Klopp might be a sore loser at times, a random dig at Luiz would have been extremely uncharacteristic from the popular Liverpool boss.
Van Dijk, meanwhile, held his hands up after the match and admitted his error proved costly.
"The goals we gave them as a present," Van Dijk told Sky Sports, per Goal, after the match.
"Until their first goal, it was totally us, we gave them two goals and it is difficult to come back. We got what we deserved.
"Until then there was nothing wrong, we played very well. So it's easy to blame us having the title but until I made the mistake there was nothing wrong."
Klopp, however, was reluctant to pin the blame on his talismanic defender.
"Virg lost the ball, but I didn't see a lot of offers around. Nobody wanted the ball really," he told reporters.
"As a full pack, we took a break and that makes no sense. And Arsenal were there. We have to take that and learn from that."