Jurgen Klopp admits Liverpool ‘needed to wake up’ during lacklustre first half against Fulham

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Jurgen Klopp angrily told his players they had to “wake up” after relegation-threatened Fulham threatened to inflict a damaging defeat in the Premier League title race. The champions salvaged a point with a hard-fought 1-1 draw through a late penalty by Mohamed Salah as Fulham insisted they should have had a spot kick of their own in the first half. Manager Scott Parker was furious with referee Andre Marriner after the official was asked to check the pitchside monitor by the VAR, Lee Mason, but decided Fabinho had not fouled Ivan Caveleiro. Ahead of Wednesday’s meeting between the two at Anfield, Liverpool blew the chance to go two points clear of Tottenham after a strangely lacklustre first half. “First 30 minutes was not good and we needed to wake up but it was better after that,” Klopp said, adding of being animated on the touchline: “I cannot write a book, throw it on the pitch and tell them to read it. So what I wanted was to just shake themselves and start again. “A good start of the game is nice, but if you don’t start well then you can start again, start again and start again. We needed half an hour, pretty much, to get our feet in the game. So that’s why I shouted a bit at them.” Before kick off, Klopp revealed that Diogo Jota would be out for up to two months with a knee injury and that defender Kostas Tsimikas will be absent for a similar period of time. To add to their injury woes Liverpool lost Joel Matip to a back problem at half time, but it is not believed to be serious. Both managers felt aggrieved by refereeing decisions with Klopp arguing that Fulham’s goal should have been disallowed for “a clear foul” on Salah in the build-up – with Parker dismissing this as part of the “shouting match” surrounding the use of VAR. However he was angered after the incident involving Caveleiro. “In real time I didn’t think it was a penalty,” Parker said. “What amazes me is at that point there is communication between the VAR and the referee… he then goes over to the screen and Fabinho has kicked Cavaleiro’s legs. “If we didn’t have VAR I wouldn’t have said a word about it. We have VAR to help us and then he has gone over the screen and not given it. It is not subjective, it is a clear penalty.” Parker said he had not watched the replay of Fulham’s goal adding: “The first thing I wanted to look at was the penalty decision. When VAR is in the game it becomes a shouting match with everyone ‘let’s check this, let’s check that’. It is the way it is at the moment.”

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