Klopp: Mainz were greedier than us

Cape Town - Jurgen Klopp believes his players were undone by a hungry Mainz side on Sunday following their surprise 4-0 loss to the German Bundesliga side.

Playing their final game of a long pre-season campaign, the Reds had come into this clash on the back of an impressive 4-0 win over Barcelona, but clearly took this match-up too lightly.

Liverpool were put to the sword from the off with goals from Daniel Brosinski (15'), Jhon Copete (45'), Yunus Malli (59') and Yoshinori Muto (74') securing a comfortable win.

Liverpool had hoped to use two different line-ups for the two games in consecutive days but with Daniel Sturridge, Sheyi Ojo and James Milner all injured, Klopp was forced to alter his plans; using 10 players against Mainz that had played the day before against Barca.

After the match, Klopp said: "It wasn't all that great for us. We were well aware this was going to be hard. Playing Barcelona the night before and then flying over, I knew some would be tired but we were looking forward to coming here.

"I also knew that we would have to play with two different teams otherwise it wouldn't work.

"But there were a couple of reasons why we couldn't go through with that plan of having two completely different teams.

"Some had to play in both games and they looked more tired than the others.

"This would probably explain some of the things we saw but that's not meant as an excuse."

Klopp is no stranger to Mainz having spent over ten years there as a player, amassing over 300 appearances, before taking over as manager where he stayed for a further seven seasons.

He added: "Mainz just seemed to want it more. They were more eager and deserved their win.

"Of course, you could see the opponent today was much greedier than we were.

"The way we played wouldn't win any match. It's far away from the Liverpool I want to see and the Liverpool I've seen before.

"Some days you just have to accept what happens on the pitch.

"This team is actually on a good path but nobody could tell from this match.

"Unbelievably, there were still some things I actually liked. I can work with this match and make use of some things."