Liverpool and United Thwarted in Dramatic Finales

Jurgen Klopp was gracious in defeat but said Liverpool “gave the game away” following their dramatic 4-3 loss to Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium.

But Ryan Fraser, who had come off the bench to win the spot-kick, then buried his maiden Premier League goal before crossing for Steve Cook to superbly equalize, with Nathan Ake bundling home a last-gasp victor as Loris Karius failed to hold another Cook effort.

Leighton Baines, however, converted an 89th minute penalty to keep the Red Devils stuck at 6th position in the league standings.

They had trailed 3-1 after 76 minutes with the visitors apparently in complete control, only for their defensive frailties to be exposed to leave the Merseyside club in third place, four points off the leaders, Chelsea, from whom Ake is on loan.

The late drama didn’t end there.

Mane hobbled out of the Reds’ disappointing 4-3 defeat to Bournemouth at the weekend, and there were fears that he could join fellow key man Philippe Coutinho on the sidelines. At 2-0 or 3-1 the game is not decided but the way we played after, we gave it away.

“We have no attitude or character problem”, Klopp told reporters. “It’s not about how it looks”.

Klopp did admit he was not happy with certain parts of Liverpool’s performance, however, accusing his team of “opening the door for Bournemouth” in the later stages of a match in which Liverpool scored excellent goals through Sadio Mane, Divock Origi and Emre Can.

Despite that, the 25-year-old was more pleased with Ake’s victor – as the on-loan Chelsea man did his parent club a huge favour with his late heroics.

Karius arrived at Anfield this summer as the replacement for error-prone Simon Mignolet, but Liverpool fans have so far yet to see a stopper that is much better than their previous goalkeeper.

Speaking on Monday Night Football, per the Mirror, Carragher questioned whether Liverpool can finish top with Lucas as their third-choice centre-back. I left my technical area, that’s all.

United hit the post early in the second half through Ander Herrera and couldn’t hold on as Everton finished the stronger.

United have made their worst start to a Premier League campaign and are already 13 points behind first-placed Chelsea after 14 games. We are not getting the results we deserve.