Fulham 1 Liverpool 1 Jurgen Klopp and Jordan Henderson offer up excuses as Liverpool drop points at Fulham

An off-colour Liverpool had to settle for a point after a lackluster opening half an hour at Craven Cottage in a 1-1 draw against Fulham.

Klopp admitted he had to make his voice heard to shake his players into action, as returning keeper Alisson Becker kept Liverpool in the game with some fine first half saves.

Bobby Decordova-Reid struck the ball expertly past the recently returned Alisson to give the Cottagers the lead, but Scott Parker’s side were unable to hold off Liverpool’s second-half fightback to secure all three points.

Liverpool came out after the break looking to make an impact on the game and eventually found the equaliser when Mohamed Salah converted from the spot in the 80th minute.

"If they had to wake up I don’t know, but I cannot write a book and throw it on the pitch for them to read. But I wanted us to shake up the game," said Klopp.

"A good start is nice, but if you don’t have it then you start again. We had half an hour pretty much to get our feet in the game, and that’s why I shouted a bit at them.

"After that it was better and the second half was good. They were fighting for the result but we had more situations after that and could have scored more.

"I am not frustrated anymore about that start, but you are right: it took us half an hour to get going and that of course makes the game more difficult.

"It was the first time supporters were here for a long, long time and obviously [they] created an atmosphere. We helped Fulham a lot to create that atmosphere, actually. They obviously played differently to the way they usually play; a lot of direct balls, Loftus-Cheek second ball, high ball fight and these kind of things. A lot of free-kicks – I think there were a lot of set-pieces in the first half.

"That’s how it is. With the ball I didn’t like our game, but there was a lot of loud shouting from outside from all the coaches, so we could solve that a little bit in the first half – like for 15 minutes – but then half-time helped massively and the second half was much better."

Liverpool skipper Jordan Henderson admitted his side were not up to their usual standards in the first half as he offered up this excuse to supporters.

"We didn’t get going until after 25-30 minutes, which in the Premier League you can’t do because you’ll get punished and we were," said Henderson.

"The good thing is we reacted well and came out strongly in the second half and maybe should have scored one or two more. But we can’t start like that going forward.

"We gave everything in the second half. When you can’t win don’t lose, but I felt we were good enough to get the three points."

Now Liverpool can prepare for their crucial top of the table clash against Tottenham on Wednesday night, with both sides heading into the game level on 25 points at the top of the table.

Liverpool will be hoping to have defender Joel Matip available for the Spurs game after he was withdrawn at Fulham with an injury at half-time.

"We are not struggling with numbers in the centre-back positions. We have some, they are just getting younger and younger, we still have centre-backs. Today we brought Hendo into that position," added Klopp.

"The situation is like it is; I actually hope Joel will be fine but I don’t know. Then we have to find a solution, that’s how a football season is."

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Online Editors