has defended after Liverpool’s defeat to Brighton, insisting the full-back did not receive the support he needed.
Brighton knocked the cup holders out with a 2-1 win at the Amex Stadium on Sunday with Kaoru Mitoma scoring a sensational stoppage time winner.
After a difficult afternoon on the coast with the Japan international a constant threat, Alexander-Arnold was hooked after 59 minutes, shaking his head with disappointment as James Milner came onto replace him.
Both Brighton’s goals came as a result of Liverpool failing to clear their lines from set pieces with Klopp unhappy with his side’s defending throughout the game.
While Alexander-Arnold also struggled, Klopp insisted the England international was overrun on too many occasions with teammates leaving him stranded.
Klopp told Radio 5 Live: ‘We came here after a game a few weeks ago when we weren’t even close to ourselves.
‘Today we played a better game but we concede two goals from set-pieces and that is not allowed in any way. On the left side Robbo was okay because we helped him but on the other side Trent didn’t get the support.
‘Mitoma is really good so, of course, it was tough. We could have defended both goals better. The first is deflected but we can probably block the shot.
‘It doesn’t feel great. In time we might see the positives but we wanted to get the next round. Congratulations to Brighton.’
Liverpool were thrashed 3-0 at the Amex earlier this month and while Klopp saw plenty of improvement from that last outing, it was his side’s failure to deal with set pieces that frustrated him.
’I general, I think we can do much better,’ Klopp added.
‘It’s not that we played a sensational game and got knocked out but it was better than whatever couple of weeks ago here. Much better against a really good side, we cannot forget that. That’s how it is. You have to work through that. You have to use your own chances around set pieces.
‘I know you are there for those periods where you concede more than you should but it’s actually the easiest to defend as well. Not for us now today. We have to be much better in these departments.
‘It just feels like the disappointment is really big because we concede this late goal and that’s really tough. We cannot change it anymore so we go from here.’
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