Jurgen Klopp admits Liverpool have only themselves to blame for encouraging an FA Cup shock at Shrewsbury Town.
The Reds boss is vowing to play his youngsters and not be present for the replay next month after his side were held to a 2-2 draw at the League One side in their fourth round tie on Sunday.
A Curtis Jones strike and an own goal from Donald Love had put Liverpool in control until Jason Cummings scored twice for the hosts inside 15 minutes of coming on as substitute after an hour.
And Klopp, who made 11 changes for the game, pointed to a succession of poor passes – particularly out of defence – as giving Shrewsbury the momentum to embark on a famous comeback.
“First and foremost I have to say congratulations to Shrewsbury, it was well deserved,” he said. “It was the minimum they deserved with the chances they had.
“Why they had the chances? Because we lost the ball in the wrong moment, we played a few really difficult passes which were difficult to control.
“We never got used to the pitch 100% today and that kept them in the game.
“We scored a wonderful goal to make it 1-0, really good football and a really nice goal.
“Then we got the gift, the present immediately after half-time of them scoring our second goal themselves.
“But it didn't give us a chance to calm the game down or whatever.
“We conceded the penalty after losing the ball and they had a counter-attack. The second goal we lost two challenges in a row and they finished the situation off really brilliantly. That's it.”
Klopp was impressed with the atmosphere at the sell-out Montgomery Waters Meadow as well as the performance from Shrewsbury.
“It's a cup game, that's how it should be,” he said. “That's absolutely right. We had to do better but Shrewsbury did really well.
“The atmosphere was wonderful for 95 minutes. We brought Shrewsbury up and the crowd up the way we played, and that's what we have to admit.
“For us, not a wonderful football day, obviously.”
Source: m.allfootballapp.com