Liverpool's Loris Karius Blames Below Par 1st Half Performance for Disappointing Old Trafford Defeat

Loris Karius has admitted that Livepool's first half performance in their 2-1 defeat to Manchester United was not good enough, and it left them with too much to do.

Karius himself put in a fairly solid performance, and there was nothing he could have done to stop either of United's first half goals.

Liverpool were not at their best in the first half at Old Trafford, and Karius reflected on a frustrating afternoon for his side. He said in an interview with LiverpoolFC: 

''In the second half we did well but the first half of course was not really good so it’s frustrating in the end, because you ask yourself why we didn’t play as good [as we did in the] second half after the game.''

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''That’s our own fault, we have to ask ourselves that question. It’s not easy to get something here if you only play good for one half so, of course, it’s disappointing.

''At the end, we could still get a point but the first half wasn’t really good from us. We didn’t defend the counter attack so good when they had their moments.

"They didn’t have a lot of moments but when they did they were really dangerous so we could have done better as a team. It’s difficult to say after a game what exactly what it was but as a team we could have done better and defended the situations better.''

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The result was a crushing blow for Liverpool in their bid to finish second in the Premier League, as the Reds now sit five points behind Manchester United in the table. 

The club will now be looking below them, with fifth placed Chelsea just four points behind them with eight games to go. The two sides meet on the penultimate weekend of the season in what could be a crucial game for both sides.