The Reds played out a goalless stalemate with the Magpies at St. James’ Park, where home goalkeeper Karl Darlow made key saves, most notably to deny Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino.
The result inched Klopp’s men’s lead at the Premier League summit up to three points in their final outing of 2020.
And though the manager was disappointed his side were unable to convert the opportunities they created into goals, he was satisfied with the display and reaction from his players.
Read a transcript of Klopp’s post-match press conference below…
On whether he is content with the performance…
I’m not happy about the result but the game is already played. I’m not overly frustrated or something like that – it’s football, if you don’t use your chances then it’s difficult to win a game. But you can have a draw with a bad performance or you can have a draw with a good performance, and tonight we had a draw with a good performance. We just didn’t use the chances and that’s why I’m OK with the game. That’s it.
On the contrast with the 7-0 win at Crystal Palace…
Look, not scoring is a concern if you don’t create. That’s how it is. If you create, it’s just momentum, it’s for now. But if you keep creating then you will score, that’s it. I know we will score again, that’s not our problem in the moment. We needed to show a reaction from the second half against West Brom because in that game we lost the plot a little bit in the second half, it looked for me like we were 1-0 down not 1-0 up. Tonight it was a very good reaction on that, without getting the result. But we all know: you win this game 1-0 and everybody is over the moon. And we should have won it at least 1-0, but we didn’t. That’s what we have to accept. But I can work with this performance, that’s important. I can work with the things I saw tonight. We can build on that, we don’t have to now change massively in the next three or four days and say, ‘OK everything is going wrong, we have to try to compete another way.’ That’s why I’m OK, that’s it.
On the amount of draws in the Premier League and his view on the reasons for it…
No, no idea. In our case, because we didn’t score often enough. I don’t know about the other games.
On what his New Year’s wish will be…
Traditionally, I’m now 53 and for around 30 years, I wish always at New Year only that my family stays healthy. That never happened with more conviction than this year because that is all I am concerned about. All the other problems we can sort, but this – what happened in 2020 – is a new experience for all of us. I didn’t need it, we all got it and now we deal with it and still have to deal with it. We have to stay disciplined. 2020 had one highlight and a lot of challenges – that was becoming champions and all the rest were big, big challenges. We will face a few more challenges in life, but I am quite happy that 2020 is nearly over now, to be honest. How I said, apart from becoming champions, it is not a year I will think a lot about in the future.
On the return of Thiago Alcantara as a second-half substitute…
We signed Thiago actually because we thought he was a good player, so you can imagine we would like to have him in the team. That’s clear. What the other boys did in the time he was not available is absolutely incredible. James Milner, for example, tonight played a super game in midfield. Really. So, yes, it’s good [he is back], he is a super player. I think of the 20 minutes, 12 round about were brilliant and then he felt the intensity, but that’s normal. He trained exactly twice with the team. There is still some physical work to do, still some rhythm to get. Shaq is back and that’s, by the way, the best news tonight – the boys are back and, as far as I know in the moment, nobody got injured tonight, which is a very important thing. That means we can probably go with the same squad to Southampton.