Jurgen Klopp was in no mood to sugarcoat anything after Liverpool’s defeat on Thursday.
The German manager often does refrain from criticising his players when it comes to competitive games.
But the Liverpool boss wasn’t keen on sparing feelings in his post-match interview after losing 4-3 to Hertha Berlin in a friendly in Austria last night.
Klopp dissected the defending for the goals that Liverpool conceded – and Kostas Tsimikas was among the culprits, in the manager’s eyes.
Suat Serdar fired the Bundesliga outfit into a 2-0 lead on the half-hour mark, smashing home a sublime Van Basten-type volley from the tightest of angles.
But the Liverpool left-back backed off his marker and failed to cut out the pass which set up Serdar.
And Klopp singled him out for a wee bit of criticism, telling the club’s official website: “Second goal, no challenge from Kostas, ball inside, then worldie.”
The Liverpool coach also reserved the same criticism for Curtis Jones and Nat Phillips for the third goal, which put the Reds 3-2 behind after the English side clawed back the two-goal deficit.
He added: “Jovetic came on and obviously the situation with the cross, Robbo is in the situation but Curt has to be there, two-v-one situation, avoid the cross. When the ball is in the air it’s difficult, a little misjudgement from the centre-half, that’s it. “
Klopp has two weeks in which to iron out these wrinkles ahead of their Premier League opener away to newly-promoted Norwich City.
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