Jurgen Klopp issues order to Liverpool players after "losing the plot" against Atalanta

Jurgen Klopp told his Liverpool players they had to sleep badly in order to reflect on their poor performance against Atalanta on Thursday night.

Liverpool were beaten 3-0 by the Italian side at Anfield putting their chances of reaching the semi-finals of the Europa League in serious jeopardy. Gianluca Scamacca had the freedom of the box to score twice before Mario Pasalic added a late third with a rebound.

The Reds had gone 33 matches unbeaten at Anfield since Real Madrid won 5-2 there back on February 21 last year, but were well off the pace. Klopp made a triple substitution at half-time, introducing Mohamed Salah, Andy Robertson and Dominik Szoboszlai but it made little difference.

They must regroup and prepare for Sunday’s Premier League match against Crystal Palace at Anfield, but Klopp couldn’t let the match go without criticising his players. Speaking in his post-match press conference, he called it a “really bad game” and said his team had “lost the plot” on the pitch.

And asked what impact the result will have on the squad, Klopp told TNT Sports: “It has not happened that often. So we have to show a reaction immediately on Sunday, that is much more important. Now, in this moment, it must feel really bad and the boys have to go home, sleep bad – that is how it is – and to recover anyway.

“But then, when we meet tomorrow, we have to prepare for Crystal Palace and we will do that and see who is able to play and who is not, these kinds of things. A lot of performances tonight were really, ‘oops, wow, I didn’t know you could play like that’, but I know this can happen.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp is interviewed

HAVE YOUR SAY! What did you make of Liverpool’s performance – and can they turn it around in the second leg? Comment below.

“So for that, we need to create a team movement on the pitch. The players looked really alone in a lot of moments so like wow, they had no one to pass it to. I know that the boys can play better football, but they didn’t do it tonight so we have to show a reaction on Sunday. I’m pretty sure we will do that.”

Liverpool hit the woodwork through Harvey Elliott, missed a one-on-one through Darwin Nunez and had a goal ruled out for offside from Mohamed Salah, but captain Virgil van Dijk admitted the team were miles off it. “Obviously it’s not great. A very, very disappointing evening. Too many individual mistakes and we got punished for it. It feels bad,” he said.

“With the man-marking system they do, we have to do much better. When we have the ball we have to do better and be much stronger. The spaces were open and they punished us immediately.”

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