Jurgen Klopp was left bemused after Liverpool ‘lost their concentration’ and capitulated at Bournemouth.
Klopp’s side conceded three times in the last 14 minutes, with Nathan Ake bundling home the late winner in a 4-3 turnaround.
The Liverpool manager had warned against complacency when his side were 2-0 up at half-time but conceded: ‘We opened the door and they ran through it. It’s a wonderful story, if you’re not part of it on the wrong side. Today we were. We have to learn from it. At 2-0 already we started to not play too well. I didn’t like it too much. I told the boys, “The game isn’t done at 2-0”.
‘The boys lost a bit of concentration. It was clear something could happen at half-time. We gave the game away because we didn’t play football any more. Then 2-1 changed the game a bit; it obviously wasn’t a penalty (James Milner felled Ryan Fraser) but it was given. We opened the door at 3-1. They had to run through it, and they did.
‘No one is born a winner. Not in the first two or three months. You have to learn it.’
Goalkeeper Loris Karius took the brunt of the blame for Liverpool’s late surrender, having fumbled Steve Cook’s speculative drive into the path of Ake for the winner.
Klopp defended his keeper in the face of the critics, including Sportsmail columnist Jamie Carragher who said Karius had ‘not shown one thing to suggest he’s good enough at this level’.
Klopp said: ‘No concern. No problem, if you make mistakes you get criticised. That’s what happens in life. We missed chances today. Do we have good strikers? Yes we do. The last goal was not easy for a goalkeeper.’
undefinedBournemouth’s starting XI cost just £3.9million and manager Eddie Howe hailed his players’ spirit. ‘It’s something we’ve really tried to protect,’ Howe said. ‘After promotion, we never wanted to lose our togetherness. Money can harm that.’