Spain playmaker Thiago opened his Reds account in fine fashion on Saturday night, as he arced in a low finish from outside the area to seal a 2-0 win over Southampton at Anfield.
And Williams told Liverpoolfc.com: “Well, we’ve been telling him to shoot more!
“His shooting in training is top. I think Gini shouted ‘Shoot!’ and he must have heard him because he’s whipped it round and finally got one for us.”
Read on for our full post-match interview with the young centre-back, who put in an assured performance upon his return to first-team action against Saints…
On the importance of the win…
Yeah, it was massive coming off the back of two draws. We needed the full three points to catch up, so now we’re putting pressure on the teams above us. It’s credit to the boys: everyone did their job, a clean sheet and three points.
On the work he has done behind the scenes since his previous first-team start…
I’ve just been keeping up with my fitness. All the staff have helped me through it and they prepared me well for the 90 minutes that I’ve had to go and do.
I had a bit of an incentive [this week]. There’s a few minor injuries knocking about, so it gives the boys more chance to recover and I’m glad I could step in and do a job.
On his partnership with Nathaniel Phillips…
Nat’s a top defender. He’s got bags of potential and he coached me through the game for some of it, so I’m really happy I could play with him.
On Alisson Becker’s Man of the Match performance…
You always know that with Ali behind you, if you do get beaten we’ve got a big chance of saving it because he’s such a world-class ‘keeper. His distribution, everything. He makes himself big in the net and he does his job really well.
On Liverpool’s pursuit of a top-four finish…
We’ve just got to take it one game at a time and keep putting pressure on the teams above us - which we have done tonight - because we know we could get a chance and we have to capitalise. We can only win every game and see what happens.