Tuesday 5 February 2019 11:28, UK
Jurgen Klopp believes his Liverpool side ultimately suffered as a result of a fortuitous refereeing decision during Monday night's 1-1 draw with West Ham at the London Stadium.
Sadio Mane gave the Reds the lead after 22 minutes when James Milner was not adjudged to have been offside in the build-up by the assistant on the near touchline.
Michail Antonio cancelled out Mane's controversial opener, and Klopp was seen remonstrating with referee Kevin Friend at full-time as Liverpool left the door open for Manchester City to move top with a win over Everton on Wednesday.
Klopp told Sky Sports: "We had good moments, coming through the channels and scored the goal, which I've now been told is offside. This explains a little bit the second half, because I think the referee knew at half-time.
"He knew it for sure at half-time, and then you saw a lot of strange situations. They were not decisive but just rhythm breakers. That obviously didn't help us.
"If I've made a mistake in the first half, I don't want to open the gap even more as a human being."
Liverpool have dropped seven points in their last five games, losing to Manchester City before back-to-back draws with Leicester and now West Ham having dropped only six points in their opening 20 league games.
Liverpool were without Jordan Henderson and Georginio Wijnaldum, with both players being ruled out after their final training session - a factor which Klopp believes had an impact on defending West Ham's set pieces.
He added: "It was not our best performance of course because we came up against difficult opponents.
"It's a deserved draw which we'll take now. We'll see who's available for the weekend and we'll move on.
"We had to play in a different formation because we had to change three times after training, which doesn't help with the rhythm.
"We dealt with their quality apart from at set pieces. We had to change three positions and obviously that makes things harder. They are really strong in that department.
"We have to accept that [the pressure]. We have to perform better. That's all I'm interested in and concerned about.
"A couple of players didn't play at the highest level tonight, but it's happened before and it'll happen again. We will deal with that."
