<
>

Liverpool's Loris Karius commits another blunder in friendly win over Tranmere

Liverpool's Loris Karius Andrew Powell/Liverpool via Getty Images

BIRKENHEAD, England -- Jurgen Klopp says Loris Karius can expect intense scrutiny this season after he committed another error during Liverpool's preseason win over Tranmere Rovers on Tuesday.

In Karius' second appearance since his error-strewn performance in last season's 3-1 Champions League final defeat to Real Madrid in May, the goalkeeper spilled Ollie Norburn's drilled free kick from close range that allowed Tranmere's Jonny Smith to swoop in and score.

Klopp recently defended the 25-year-old on Liverpool's website, believing the concussion he sustained in Kiev was "100 percent the explanation" for his errors.

Speaking after the Tranmere game, the Liverpool manager tried to downplay Karius' mishap against the League Two side.

He said: "Now Loris concedes that goal but we cannot start the story always after each mistake. Mistakes will happen.

"I don't like it. You don't like it. He doesn't like it but they do happen, so let's carry on and make the best of all these situations to learn from it.

"You [the media] can all stop it immediately -- promise. You never ask again, that would be one little step.

"Yeah, [the reaction] will probably happen for a while until he has a few fantastic games -- that is how the situation is. We cannot change that. Our job is to perform and you do what you do and that is part of the deal.

"It is obvious, we don't have to hide it. Yes, he could have made that save, even though the shot was not easy to deal with. I've seen this situation 500 times at least in my life -- bam, against the chest, going down. But no one likes that in these situations."

Liverpool won their second friendly of the summer, 3-2, after racing into a three-goal lead in the first half, with Rafael Camacho, Sheyi Ojo and Adam Lallana getting on the scoresheet.

Klopp then made 11 changes at half-time as Danny Ward made way in goal for Karius, who received a warm reception from the Liverpool supporters in attendance.

But the shot-stopper's failure to hold onto Norburn's free kick led to the hosts pulling one back in the 72nd minute before poor play from James Milner and Pedro Chirivella saw Amadou Soukouna make it 3-2.

"No one likes that goal, but if we talk about the second goal I think it was Millie's fault together with Chirivella," Klopp said.

"Two brilliant footballers make this mistake, which one was the bigger? I would say the second one, but we don't talk about that."

On the match, Klopp continued: "Apart from the goals [conceded] everything was pretty much good.

"I liked the second half as well because although we were not that ruthless, maybe, we created a lot and played good football, came in the right spaces -- last third not as good as first half but it was pretty good.

"First half was obviously good. We had more chances to score, but then we conceded the goals, which is not nice. That's the situation -- 3-2, nobody injured and everybody had 45 minutes [of] intensity That's what we wanted."