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Liverpool's Jurgen Klopp rues wasted 81 percent possession at Burnley

BURNLEY -- Jurgen Klopp has said that his Liverpool side need to make the most of the possession when they have it and lamented his players' decision making in the 2-0 defeat to Burnley on Saturday afternoon.

The Reds were abject at Turf Moor and started how they meant to go on. With just two minutes on the clock, Sam Vokes broke the deadlock with a well-taken finish before strike partner Andre Gray doubled Burnley's lead 37 minutes in.

Klopp's team were afford plenty of the ball against the newly promoted side -- ending up with 81 percent of possession by full-time -- but failed to make any of it count.

Speaking at a news conference after the loss, Klopp feels a lack of penetration and mistakes under pressure cost his side dearly.

"[Possession] is what we did well," Klopp said. "But in the end you have to use it. It's not allowed that you suffer under your own ball possession, that makes no sense.

"It's not that we didn't want it -- six or seven times Phil [Coutinho] alone was in the right position to shoot. In England you use the word 'clinical' -- in a lot of situations I saw we were clinical but even then we didn't score. That's how it is and we have to accept it.

"I will watch the game again and I am pretty sure I will not see a lot of surprises in this game, I saw everything."

Klopp added: "When we conceded the first goal, we had a lot of time to win the game. As I said, even at half-time I felt there was still a possibility to do it.

"In the last moments, we were not where we should have been and that was a little bit of the problem, in the box, around the box. I saw crosses -- really good crosses -- when nobody was in the box. I saw shots when the whole box was full.

"Our timing and decision-making today was not really good. It might have been forced by the result and by the passion of the opponent, but it is how it is."

The Reds boss praised the play of opposing forwards Vokes and Gray, who gave his back four a torrid time in east Lancashire on the counter-attack.

"We lost in a game in which we had in both halves about 80 percent possession," Klopp said. "But there are different ways to play football, that's absolutely OK. Especially the two strikers of Burnley, Vokes and Gray, did really well, physically strong guys.

"The rest defended with big heart. I respect this but usually in a game like this, we win, if we don't make mistakes in the wrong moment. But we did. Now we have to accept the result and carry on."