Jurgen Klopp explains why he didn't bring on Jayden Danns in Liverpool's defeat to Everton

Jurgen Klopp lamented Liverpool’s lack of forward options to try to turn around the momentum as their Premier League title hopes were shattered by Everton.

The Reds suffered a 2-0 Merseyside derby defeat which leaves their chances of being crowned champions virtually over. Liverpool were lacklustre throughout the Goodison Park showdown, with Jarrad Branthwaite and Dominic Calvert-Lewin netting for the triumphant Toffees as Klopp suffered a loss in his final derby before his summer departure.

Liverpool are three points behind leaders Arsenal with four games remaining while Manchester City are a point behind but with two games in hand.

Ahead of the Everton clash, the Reds suffered an injury blow to Diogo Jota before Cody Gakpo pulled out on the day of the game after his partner went into labour. Despite Mo Salah and Darwin Nunez struggling, they both featured for the entire 90 minutes. That’s because Harvey Elliott replaced Dominik Szboszlai in midfield while the only other attacker on the bench was Jayden Danns.

And while the 18-year-old has impressed when given chances this term, Klopp admitted it was not the right game for him to play in. Asked on the reason behind the current form, the Liverpool manager said: “There are different aspects, definitely. Players who played all the games are not that fresh, but that is for other teams the same. I don’t want to use that as an excuse, really – as long as the boys are fit, not injured, that helps. Let me say, Gabriel and [William] Saliba played all the games for Arsenal. Did they play a little bit less than us? I don’t even know 100 per cent – but they played a lot of games as well.

“Coming back from injury obviously is then slightly different, because of the intensity – the game is not waiting for you. Up front it is a super-intense job to do, always high sprint, always go, go, go and we cannot change [players] there is difficult.

“I know we had Dannsy on the bench, but we didn’t know we had to bring him in [to the squad] because of the two situations – with Diogo we only learned two days ago [about his injury] and with Cody actually today really. So, that’s now not a game for an 18-year-old boy and [James] Tarkowski and [Jarrad] Branthwaite kill you in these situations and it doesn’t help. So, a lot of things came together [and] it’s not great timing, I admit that. I would prefer to be sitting here, winning 4-0, flying and can’t wait for the next game.

“How I said, the job is to win football games and the more you win, the more successful you are. In the moment, we didn’t win enough to get anything out of the season yet so we should better start winning again.”