Roberto Firmino’s header in first-half stoppage-time ultimately proved the decisive moment in ensuring the Reds collected three vital points.
The visitors could have added further to their tally as they carved out a succession of chances after the break, but they were ultimately forced to endure a tense finale with the Baggies pushing for an equaliser.
Nevertheless, the result sees Liverpool move back up to third position in the Premier League table and with just five games left to play, kept their ambition of a top-four finish firmly intact.
Read on for a transcript of Klopp’s post-match press conference…
On his reaction to Liverpool’s result and performance…
It is one of the most difficult places to come because in no game can you feel comfortable. Somebody asked me which result would have kept me a little bit calmer in the last few minutes and I said only 4-0 after 86 minutes! Maybe then I would have felt OK, but now it’s done. With West Brom, it is not only set-pieces, they have really good footballers on the pitch and if you’re a little bit less aggressive then immediately they use their threat around set-pieces to play football because you don’t want to go in with real challenges. That makes it really difficult, so you need to be at your highest concentration level – but we have been. In the first half, we didn’t play too good [in terms of] football and in the second half we did much better, but we kept the ball in the first half and didn’t let them be really part of the game. We thought that made no sense. In the second half, we did this much better after the goal. For us, it was very, very important because showing this concentration level until the end didn’t work each week in the last few months – but today, it was really good and I am happy about this.
LFCTV GO: Watch Klopp's post-West Brom press conference
On Liverpool’s celebrations with their supporters after the full-time whistle…
I don’t think we did crazy things, but yes we are very happy. They were only three points today; we had 63 before we came here, now 66 and that’s a wonderful number for the next six or seven days and then we want to have 69. I really thought that the boys were in a really difficult game in not the easiest situation, but they did really well. You can always do better, but we learned in the game and I liked it a lot that the second half looked better tuned than the first. We knew what to do, but in the first half it looked a little bit static in a few moments and in the second half it looked much better. I am really happy about the performance.
On this being Liverpool’s first win in nine Premier League away games against teams managed by Tony Pulis…
I can understand why. Actually, I thought we’d won here last year but that was a draw, so I’m not too good at remembering results! I had no idea [about the record], but you can imagine it’s a difficult place to come. It’s really three very important points at a difficult place and that’s improved our base for the rest of the season so I’m happy about this. Let’s carry on.
On Alberto Moreno’s long-range miss late on…
I told him after the game ‘I know everyone thinks you can play in Daniel Sturridge, but actually he would have been offside’. Maybe there was another option that I didn’t see, I’d have to watch it again, but it’s completely normal in a situation like this, you think you have to do this [shoot]. He had a difficult few weeks but last week was really good and he deserved a few minutes, it was only a few minutes but that’s good. He’s a good boy, really. I would have been happy for him, actually, if he’d scored this goal, but [there was] excitement until the end, which is pretty much always the way it is when we are involved.
On Simon Mignolet’s performance…
He made an important save [from Matt Phillips with 10 minutes remaining] and in the end, it doesn’t look that spectacular, but he was really present around the set-pieces. I think three, four, five fists away, which was really good, I have to say. He was really lively, front-footed, all that stuff. Very important again.