Fulham mock Jurgen Klopp's complaint about dry pitch

Fulham appeared to mock Jurgen Klopp on Sunday, tweeting a picture of their pitch being watered after the Liverpool manager's complaints that the surface was too dry.

Speaking after yesterday's disappointing 2-2 draw at Craven Cottage a frustrated Jurgen Klopp suggested that a dry pitch was one reason for his team's underperformance.

“The pitch was dry, stuff like this, we played really [into] their cards. Most of the time when we found a bit of direction we ended up in front of their goal and hit the crossbar, all these kind of things." he said.

On Sunday morning, Fulham responded by tweeting a picture of their sprinklers on full bore.

The pitch in West London was not the only source of Klopp's discontent, however. He said his frustration was “12 out of 10” and described his team’s performance as feeling like a defeat, even though Mohamed Salah’s late equaliser secured a point at Craven Cottage.

Liverpool, last season’s runners-up, were forced to twice come from behind against Fulham, who struck through Aleksandar Mitrovic either side of half-time.

“The best thing about the game is the result, that we get a point from a really bad game from my side,” said the Liverpool manager.

“Now it is a question of how can it happen? The attitude was not right in the beginning. Then we wanted to fight back but you don’t find it easy any more."

Klopp added: “The result is fine. I don’t think we deserved more than that. But the performance is massively improvable.”

Liverpool had impressed in last week’s Community Shield victory over Manchester City and Klopp said it made no sense for the performance levels of his team to drop so suddenly.

Asked after the match how frustrated he was, Klopp said: “You want to know on a scale of one to 10? 12. Very, very because the performance was a defeat. That's why we have to figure it out.

“The results are very important for us, obviously. I would love to get three points but I would have loved much more to play really good, to be honest. We did not do that.

“It is my responsibility to find out why we played last Saturday a surprisingly good game for the moment we were in in pre-season, and seven days later we look like we are completely upside down. That doesn't make sense. I am only thinking about that."

Silva: we deserved to win

Marco Silva, the Fulham head coach, said his team deserved more than a draw after a performance of such energy and intensity in front of their own crowd.

“The way we started against a top team, we matched them,” said Silva. “That is the main thing for us. Our players know the work we are doing. I think our players deserved something more from the game than just one point.

“It is important because we came from a great season [in the Championship]. You can feel it in the stadium. The fans helped the team and the team pushed them to be behind us.”

Fulham are expected to be in another battle against relegation this season, following their promotion from the Championship, and Silva is keen to make more signings before the end of the summer transfer window. Fulham are looking to sign another centre-back, at least.

“We have to get some more numbers in, not just in central defence,” said Silva. “The market is still open, it has been difficult for us but for other teams as well. This week we have signed two experienced Premier League players, Bernd [Leno] and Shane [Duffy]. They will give us different things but we have to keep doing our job because there is more to come.”