The Reds raced into a two-goal lead inside eight minutes at the Amex Stadium as Mohamed Salah and Jordan Henderson struck for the champions.
However, Graham Potter’s side showed a positive reaction and, after a spell of sustained pressure on the visitors’ goal, pulled one back before the break through Leandro Trossard’s neat finish.
Both teams had opportunities after the interval, but Salah’s second ultimately settled the contest on 76 minutes when he headed in from a corner.
The result moves Liverpool onto 92 points for the season so far – and with four games left the play, the chance to set a new English all-time record tally remains.
Read on to see what Klopp told reporters in his post-match press conference…
On the result and his side’s performance…
It was a difficult game against a good opponent, a deserved win. Job done, job well done in big parts of the game but not in all. That’s how it is. I think we started really, really well, we finished really, really well, but in between we left the door a bit too wide open for Brighton. But only because Brighton was really good; they played really good football, took some risks in the formation. Some of them were really threatening counter-attacks so we had to block twice in the box. In the end, we conceded a goal. I said to my boys at half-time, ‘It is a good game [for] both sides, but they deserved their goal’ and in the end, we had to adjust a few things and make a few things better. We had a better chance to score more, that was the situation. We had to adjust a little bit in the positions of the wingers, but it is difficult. For their build-up, we had a specific set-up and that changed immediately in the moment when they didn’t build-up and it didn’t work always perfectly. It worked perfectly for the two goals, but not in other moments.
On whether Liverpool can surpass the record of 100 points in a season…
What can I say? When I think about the next four opponents and look at them and think we will get 12, 10 or whatever points, I never did that. I can’t do that. We play against Burnley, who are a result-machine. I couldn’t respect more what they are doing. They played away, won against West Ham, they will come to us and will fight with all they have – so that is what we have to do as well. After that, we play Arsenal in a really good moment. After that, we play against Chelsea in a really good moment. How could I assume we will get all of these points? I think from now on about the Burnley game and when I think about 92 points, I think, ‘OK, how could we get 97 last year?’ That’s unbelievable – and we play Champions League always in midweek. That is unbelievable. We needed luck in moments, like last year against Newcastle with a header in the last minute from Origi and stuff like this. It’s how it is, but first and foremost you have to fight for the three points. That’s what we did tonight again and I like that, I like that a lot, because that is the mother and the father of each win, that you really work hard for it. The boys did that again and that’s great.
On Brighton and two difficult games against them this season…
It is just a good football team, what Graham is doing is just exceptional. I told him [that] before the game, I couldn’t hold back, I wanted to tell him. I don’t enjoy each analysis I would say, but this analysis I enjoyed a lot because the positioning is good, the way they play is good. We punished them tonight for what they did but then they adapted then a little bit. They had a longer build-up, long balls to Burn. We were immediately not ready for the second balls and that’s already enough, that’s Premier League football. It is really cool, but usually they do what they do and they are convinced about it – and I like that a lot. Even when we were 2-0 up, they still tried to create and stuff like this. In this moment we could have closed the game, to be honest, but still they played football and I liked that a lot. Again, how Graham sets the team up is exceptional, I have to say. I like watching them and I know they will stay in the Premier League, of course, and if they keep going like this then they will be a massive threat for a lot of teams, I’m sure.
On Salah’s two goals and the combined tally of 250 strikes from him, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino for Liverpool…
He is a striker, how can [scoring] not be a motivation for him? That’s clear. In the last two years he won the Golden Boot – last year he shared it with Sadio and Aubameyang. It’s always important, it’s important for Sadio. In the end, you only can score goals when you perform well and he did that tonight, so that was really good. If you are too focused on goals – which they aren’t – then you don’t move enough that can be in the right situations. The goals we scored tonight, they were really good. We had a lot to move to score the goals, so that’s nice. We could have scored more, that’s true, but that’s pretty much all. Two-hundred-and-fifty goals is really exceptional – imagine where I would be if these boys did not play for me! Wow! The situation minus 250 goals… great!
On Naby Keita’s performance…
Absolutely great. He is getting better and better, step by step and game by game and that’s really cool. Absolutely. I am really happy about that. Long may it continue, let me say it like this. When him and the boys stay fit then everything is fine with the quality they have, the way we play suits them. Tonight, being a player like Naby but winning these balls… come on, as a coach – and as the coach I am – I couldn’t be happier about these kind of goals. Everybody is involved in that and I am really grateful for seeing things like this.