Georginio Wijnaldum’s well-taken strike from Trent Alexander-Arnold’s inventive corner saw the Reds take the lead in the 57th minute, and the result was rubber-stamped by James Milner’s emphatic late penalty.
Sunday’s victory in the Welsh capital means Klopp’s team again sit two points above Manchester City, who play their game in hand against Manchester United at Old Trafford in midweek.
Read on for a summary of Klopp’s post-match press conference from the Cardiff City Stadium…
On the performance of his team and the result…
It’s massive, it’s really massive. It was so difficult; if you say that before the game, everyone looks at you like you’re not allowed to say it. Going to Cardiff, you have to work there. We spoke a lot about this game, how special it is, how special the situation is for the opponent just to make clear what we had to do today. It was not a game for a little bit of playing around, it was a game for a 100 per cent fight, a battle of will again and who wants it more? In difficult circumstances; the circumstances were all a bit in favour of the team who doesn’t have the ball that often. The ball doesn’t roll like normally, everybody saw it. I can speak about it today because a few guys from Sky said they spoke about it as well, so then maybe it is allowed. It doesn’t make football easy when the pitch is dry. It is dangerous as well for injuries, but it doesn’t make it easy. We had the ball most of the time and still created three brilliant chances, which we probably usually finish off. We didn’t do that – it can happen – so then you have to stay patient, be calm, you need to stay 100 per cent focused on each set-piece because that’s what they go for and it’s pretty difficult.
I think the big chance they had [Morrison header], the ref told me it would have been a foul on Ali, so it wouldn’t have been a goal. We had the ball anyway, so all good in that. We defended these set-pieces brilliantly and used a set-piece in a fantastic way, it was so smart. We used experience from the first half for that corner in the second half; it was not from the training ground, it was from the dressing room at half-time when the boys decided to do that. I love that, a brilliant goal. The second goal, I think we counter-pressed four times, won the ball and then I think there is no doubt about it, if the defender uses the hands five times then it is a penalty. Millie finished it off. A brilliant day – and even Fabinho should be OK. He was a bit dizzy. In that game, you need to be 100 per cent or out. At that moment, he couldn’t play at 100 per cent, so we made that change after a minute. But he is fine.
On how the players decided on the set-piece routine for Wijnaldum’s goal…
We put a lot of effort into set-pieces. We were not bad first half. We knew Cardiff were outstandingly strong at offensive set-pieces, but from time to time they have some problems with defensive set-pieces. The boys obviously found out [how to work the corner]. If you make all of these runs and you’re on the pitch, no camera angle is as good as your own view, so they decided to play that flat ball and Gini could make the run. With all the blocks, it was man-marking and if three players are man-marked and then you bring a fourth or a fifth one, then he is free. Obviously Gini was free during that moment, but still you have to hit the ball like this. A brilliant goal, I loved it.
On his side’s improvement on set-pieces this season…
We had to improve on it, we didn’t really score a lot of goals in the past from this. A big compliment to all the boys involved in that – the analysts, Pete Krawietz put a lot of work into that but in the end the boys have to do it. They like it and you will do pretty much everything if someone tells you you will score more often. It doesn’t happen too often and of course players talk to each other. We have two or three routines around set-pieces, then it’s about trying all of them and figuring out what caused them the most problems, then you try that one again. If you are not happy with all of the things on the day then we have to try something different. That’s difficult on the pitch to decide because you need too many players being involved, it’s like taking a proper time out and saying ‘now we do it like this’, but at half-time it is possible so they did it. Brilliant, I love it.
On his side breaking the club's record for the most points amassed in a Premier League season…
We are in sport long enough and at the end it’s like a bill: the price is on and you have to pay it, that’s what we will do. In the end, we will see how many points we have and then we get what we get for it. We don’t know, if you are only motivated by winning the holy grail then something is wrong with you. We are motivated ourselves because we play for this club, because we want to win football games, because we enjoy the ride together with our fans, that’s the truth. We have no influence on the other games, we can play our games and our next game is against Huddersfield, which will be difficult again for different reasons. I know already that if I say it will be really tough then people look at me and say ‘what are you talking about?’ ‘Do you think about Barcelona already?’
We will be completely focused on Huddersfield, but until then we have to train and I know there is a game on Wednesday. We had to play that game as well and Man United was in that moment obviously in a much better moment when we played them, so it was a 0-0. We’ll see what comes out on Wednesday, we have no influence on that, but we still have to play games after that. So if United gets a point or whatever and we win [against] Huddersfield, go to Newcastle after Barcelona and think we have it halfway or whatever, then we will get a knock there. It’s all difficult, we just have to stay focused on our things – that’s what worked really well so far and I don’t see any reason why we should change.