Jurgen Klopp has taken the blame for Rhian Brewster’s costly penalty miss against Arsenal in the Community Shield.
Brewster came on with just moments left in the game and then hit the bar to hand Arsenal an advantage in the shoot out the Gunners never relinquished.
Liverpool fans have high hopes for Brewster and the player was visibly gutted to miss the crucial penalty, but Klopp insisted the forward wasn’t to blame.
‘This will not harm Rhian,’ said the Liverpool head coach. ‘If anyone is to blame, it is me.
‘I wanted him in the position because he is a real finisher and confident. Today, not. That happens in life and in football.
‘We all have to learn and prove we can deal with defeats. If he would have scored and someone else missed, it is the same theme.
‘There are bigger reasons than that. Missing it like this is possible. I have never seen him miss one but it happens.’
Liverpool players including Curtis Jones consoled Brewster when Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang fired past Alisson in for Arsenal’s fifth penalty to condemn Liverpool to defeat.
It is the second year in a row Liverpool have lost the Community Shield on penalties and Klopp admitted it was a ‘sad’ day for the reigning Premier League champions.
‘Today I was sad,’ Klopp said after the game.
‘When you play against a formation like this – which happened to us pretty much always, not only when we are 1-0 down, even when it’s 0-0 a lot of teams play like this – then you need to be in the final third really fresh.
‘We couldn’t create exactly the chance we wanted but we had two of them and the third one that we scored with.
‘Against a team with the quality of Arsenal, on some days it must be enough.
‘When you finish it off, it is enough. When you don’t finish it off it’s not enough and today it was not enough.’
