Jurgen Klopp names Liverpool star who was 'absolutely insane' and player who 'ran out of gas'

Jurgen Klopp admitted Liverpool could have come closer to producing their latest European miracle had Trent Alexander-Arnold been fully match-fit.

The Reds' hopes of winning the Europa League in Klopp's final season as manager came to an end at the hands of Atalanta in the quarter-finals. A 3-0 loss against the Serie A side at Anfield in the first leg did the damage.

But Liverpool made a bright start in the reverse clash at the Stadio de Bergamo, with Mo Salah giving them a lifeline when netting a penalty in the seventh minute. It was Alexander-Arnold, making his first start since recovering from a two-month knee injury, who won the spot-kick.

The Reds' vice-captain was at the heart of everything in the first half. But his prolonged absence caught up with him after the interval and was substituted in the 76th minute for Joe Gomez.

Speaking at his post-match press conference, Klopp conceded that Liverpool could not sustain their tempo in the second period as they failed to pose Atalanta any real problems - and were meekly eliminated from the Europa League.

The Reds boss said: “The biggest problem for us in the second half was that we couldn't keep that tempo. For us, you saw tonight in Trent Alexander-Arnold which player we didn’t have for a while now. As long as he was fresh, together with Macca [Alexis Mac Allister] he set the tempo, the rhythm, the direction of the game. Obviously, he was a bit running a bit out of gas. Macca had to go through this game, which is crazy and the way he did it was absolutely insane, but that was the difference.

“We can do that usually [keep the tempo] but tonight it was not that easy. If we could have kept a higher rhythm a bit longer, I think whatever Atalanta changed in the second half was not [the reason]. In the first half they pressed really high, what they did in the end again, in the middle of the game maybe not that much so that’s how it is, but that was not the difference.

“I think tonight when we were really in the game we were difficult to play and in other moments we were easier to defend. We didn’t have enough chances for this. We have to create a little bit more than we did in the first half already because it is always clear you need the results to help to destabilise the opponent a little bit - if you have a second goal, then it is a tricky one and each ball and the next goal is extra-time, but we didn’t get to that point so we will never really know how that would have looked. But again, how I said, Atalanta deserve to go through and I am fine with that. I don’t want to go through if you don’t deserve it so it’s all good.”