Second-half goals from Dominic Solanke and Divock Origi capped an assured showing from the team in their opening game at the Premier League Asia Trophy.
The result sets up a clash with Leicester City in the final this weekend and Klopp was buoyed by the manner of the victory against fellow Premier League opposition.
The manager also discussed the contributions of the goalscorers, the thinking behind his changes for the second half and more in his post-match press conference.
Read on for a summary…
LFCTV GO: Highlights of the win in Hong Kong
On his assessment of the game…
It was an all-round good performance, I have to say. It was the most difficult circumstances for both teams because it was really hard training. It’s pre-season, we have to train hard. It was hot and today we played there and both teams played good football in the first half, especially individuals from Crystal Palace – Townsend, Zaha, Benteke. It was really difficult but we defended well. We played good football as a team, the passing and movement was good, and the runs in behind were good. We were patient until we should have speeded up, but we did, came in behind, opened gaps, but didn’t score. That’s how football is, so then second half we tried, kept on going and made a lot of changes. And then we scored – nice, very nice from Dominic. It was individual but was already kind of team play with one individual performance. The second goal was team play, we were in the box with a lot of players and then we could finish the situation. It was nice, really nice.
On whether defensive improvement is the priority…
I said before the game, our biggest challenge is to get stronger defensively as a team, more concentrated. It’s not about individual quality, we have no problem with this. In different moments, we need to be a little bit more focused in the situation or too long in the situation when the situation already changed. We know where the problem is. Second half, we changed everything. We cannot change 10 times, so we had to do it four, four and two. That’s what we did. We changed the whole team and a little bit the formation, 4-4-1-1, because Crystal Palace played with three at the back. It was very good with Divock and Dominic, to have two strikers. It was nice to watch actually, so all good.
LFCTV GO: Klopp's post-match press conference
On Solanke’s performance…
I think it’s a smart move for him and for us. He saw an opportunity at Liverpool and we see it also. Having him around, you could see immediately he is a smart player and a really skilled boy. I’m really happy about this. You need a little bit of luck and scoring in a game like this, he will stay patient 100 per cent, we will help him all we can and hopefully at the end everything will be good.
On Mohamed Salah’s efforts in the game…
He would still be running if we hadn’t taken him off the pitch! It was good, it’s nice for everybody to see him on the pitch with his speed, but not only with his speed, also with his football skills. I don’t like to talk too much about single players – we played as a team really well today. Mo is a very quick player, Dom is another very good player but there are also others around. I was really happy. You cannot win against Crystal Palace, even in a pre-season game, if you’re not playing kind of a good game. And we did this so I’m fine.
On whether he is confident Liverpool can produce a similar performance against Leicester…
I’m not confident about this, but I hope so – why shouldn’t I be? We have now three days to train and that’s what we will do, then we come here on Saturday again. The atmosphere was really nice when we came in and the other game was still running. We could hear it [the atmosphere] and then when the boys had a look in the stadium before the game, they were really impressed. It was really nice so thank you for this nice performance from the stands. We’re already looking forward to Saturday’s final. If you are part of a tournament, you want to be in the final. This is a little tournament, only a semi-final and then the final, but it’s good. Now we play against Leicester. We lost the last game in the league against Crystal Palace and we lost the last game in the league against Leicester, so maybe we should try to change that. We will be there and we will try everything. That’s the most important thing. It was a nice stadium with a fantastic atmosphere.
On Ben Woodburn’s performance from a deeper-lying role…
It’s not the first time, he’s played there a few times. Ben is a very smart player. He is too young to fix him already for any position, so we only know that we want to have him in and around our team. He can play there, it’s no problem – he can play as a 10, he can play on the wing. He will get smarter, 100 per cent – and he is already really smart. Bringing him into the middle of the park helps him a lot to learn the highest level of football under pressure. It’s exciting. I have no idea which is his best position, but actually I don’t think about it – I am only happy that I have him around.