Klopp ‘completely happy’ with display despite Liverpool’s loss to Man City

Jurgen Klopp was “completely happy” with Liverpool’s performance in the Community Shield defeat to Manchester City on penalties, pointing out the character and fight shown by his side will fuel their pursuit of silverware, reports ESPN.

Yesterday’s showdown at Wembley between the Premier League champions and the continental kings ended 1-1 in normal time with Joel Matip’s header cancelling out Raheem Sterling’s effort. Gini Wijnaldum was the only player to miss his kick in the resulting shootout, which Pep Guardiola’s men won 5-4.

City were slick and more clinical than Liverpool in the first half, but the Reds dominated the second period with eight shots on target to one. A Kyle Walker scissor-kick denied Mohamed Salah the winner on 93 minutes, with goalkeeper Claudio Bravo — who Guardiola felt was the man of the match — thwarting Xherdan Shaqiri shortly after.

“I’m completely happy about the full performance,” Klopp said. “If you want to be prepared for Man City you have to make a preseason game against Man City; no team plays like them. You saw that in a few moments in the first half, when they can do what they do. We struggled a little bit positioning-wise but that’s normal. We changed that for the second half, which helped us a lot.

“We will try everything. It’s not as much important what I could say but what the boys showed today. I thought they looked pretty hungry.”

Only one point separated Liverpool (97) and title winners City (98) in the league last season and Guardiola expects Klopp’s charges to be their greatest challengers again.

“We know who we will face [for honours],” he said. “Liverpool are champions of Europe. They are a top-class team. The difference is only one point ahead, one penalty. It’s minimal. It’s good to play them to show the guys, this is the team we’re gonna face this season and how well prepared we have to be to win the titles.”