LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Sunday, January 17, 2021: Liverpool's manager Jürgen Klopp during the pre-match warm-up before the FA Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Manchester United FC at Anfield. (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)

Jurgen Klopp admits there is “no easy explanation” for Liverpool’s lack of goals

Jurgen Klopp has pointed out that Liverpool have “always missed chances,” but admitted there is “no easy explanation” for going three league games without a goal.

The Premier League‘s second-top scorers in each of the last three seasons, the Reds have now gone three league fixtures without finding the back of the net.

Having been held to a 1-1 draw by West Brom last month, Klopp’s side have drawn a blank against Newcastle, Southampton and now Man United, with a 0-0 played out at Anfield on Sunday.

The result denied Liverpool the opportunity to leapfrog their rivals back to the top of the table, and comes despite the Reds firing 17 shots on goal to United’s eight.

Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and in particular Roberto Firmino were all lacking a clinical edge against the Manchester club, and speaking to Sky Sports after the game, Klopp acknowledged the issue but said “you cannot force it.”

“There’s no easy explanation. We always missed chances, just then we had another one which we used and that’s how it is,” he said.

“We have to keep going, in these situations in football you always have to keep going.

“You have to try to ignore the talk around, because that’s how it is – it’s football, everybody wants to see goals, if you don’t score goals everybody talks about it.

“But we have to stay focused on doing the right stuff. You cannot force it, ‘shoot now’ or stuff like this, it’s more important the way you react to a missed chance.

“In a really good game, you miss chances, but you don’t care, the next ball you try again.

“When you didn’t score for a while then you deal differently with it, and that’s the challenge.

“I liked the game, I saw a lot of good individual performances and the team performance was really good.

“And so that’s how it is: 0-0, not the result we wanted, but the result we got, and now we keep on going.”

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Sunday, January 17, 2021: Liverpool's Roberto Firmino during the FA Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Manchester United FC at Anfield. (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)

It is quite remarkable how poor Liverpool have been in front of goal over the last four league games given they came off the back of a record 7-0 thrashing of Crystal Palace on December 19.

That is, of course, an encouraging sign that vindicates Klopp’s view that the good times will return, with the manager stressing the need to keep creating chances.

“It’s football, and we are not only in football since yesterday. These moments, they happen,” Klopp continued.

“You have moments when you cannot explain why you score from all angles, like against Crystal Palace when everything ended up in the back of the net, and [you have] the other moments.

“You just have to do the right things. It’s about creating; you have to create and create and create, then we will score.”