Jürgen Klopp: I loved the fight we showed to beat Leicester
Jürgen Klopp was delighted with the 'fight' Liverpool showed to end their recent winless run by beating Leicester City 3-2 in the Premier League.
The Reds claimed their first victory in September from a frantic and hard-fought second clash with the Foxes of the week at King Power Stadium.
Goals from Mohamed Salah, Philippe Coutinho and Jordan Henderson - plus a Simon Mignolet penalty save - ultimately proved sufficient for three points.
Read on for the thoughts of the manager in his post-match press conference...
On the significance of the win for Liverpool…
It’s the first time I sit here with something in my pocket [from Leicester]. Usually I sit here and say congratulations to Leicester. It feels a big difference, to be honest. We really think we are on a good way but we are absolutely aware that we have to show it with results, so everybody can see it. We know that. After these two or three, not performance-wise but the results, not too good games, you could see at 2-0 up the game then looked a little bit different; we wanted to manage it a little bit too early and actually in the wrong spaces. But nothing happened really, it was just a little bit more of an open game. The goal we conceded, everybody knows it was not a foul on Jamie [Vardy], it was just smart. A striker maybe has to do that but it was not a foul. Then it was a foul on Simon and then we conceded a goal, not too cool.
You go in at half-time and they obviously feel a little bit better because they think ‘we changed the game’ and for the other team it’s a little bit different. So I wanted us to have the right mood in the second half and that we immediately found the style of play. We needed 10 minutes and it was a little bit wild in these 10 minutes - Leicester came up. I would have loved to control it but it was a little bit hectic. We got the control back and then we scored the third goal. We conceded for 3-2; we have to win the challenge before the cross, we didn’t and the cross came in and it was a goal. The penalty, Simon saved it. I’m not sure, maybe it was a penalty, he touched the ball, if it’s enough or not I don’t know. But the Dejan Lovren situation is a 100 per cent penalty. So let us shoot one and it could have been 4-2 or 4-3. They didn’t hit, we didn’t get one - it means 3-2. I actually thought we were deserved winners. That was the only thing I wanted to say after the game today. And so it’s a good day.
On whether the result brings a ‘sense of calm’…
I know about pressure a lot, I actually had it all my life because of different reasons. Pressure when it is the right pressure, it always helps. When it is without sense then it doesn’t help, and I’m very good at ignoring it. But, you can imagine, we want to be successful. We know the quality we have makes us responsible for being successful. I know that. But I said before the game that we are not the Harlem Globetrotters, we don’t go out and try to play really good football, we are here for results and so we play for results. I loved how we fought for it. It could have been clearer but after a few games with no results, or not the right results, you have to fight back. That’s what we did and now we can build on this.
On Mignolet facing penalties…
That’s obviously a situation he likes, so it gives us a good feeling. The decision was not too cool, but it’s not that we think it’s already done - we still have a little bit of hope. He did it again and that’s good.
On Mignolet’s overall performance…
The penalty was one situation, but as I said he touched the ball and as a goalkeeper, if you save it you make a very good day of it, I would say. The first goal we conceded, that was a foul on him and you should not blame him for being in this situation. I thought the very first ball, he made a brilliant save from Jamie Vardy. It was a good game [from him].
On Coutinho’s performance…
I’m not blind, he was obviously good and that’s cool for us. We think we did it right, we gave him 45 minutes [on Tuesday] so he could get a little bit more rhythm but it was not too intense - it was not too good for the game in midweek to take him off, to be honest! But for today it was perfect and he can be happy about his performance and I am very happy about it.
On how close Coutinho is to playing a full 90 minutes…
In the last home game, I thought he could play 90 minutes but he got cramp on 80-something [minutes]. It should not be a problem. Today we saw when [Demarai] Gray came on they had really wide wingers, so for our wingers it was then really important that they were still full of energy. We could change really well - I really loved the impact of Millie, Daniel and Ox. It was good and it’s all OK.
On why he thinks Liverpool are ‘on a good way’…
Because we play good football in general. We are in a good way. We do a lot of things that you do when you’ve worked a little bit longer together. Yes, we still have issues. Yes, we lose challenges. Yes, because of the defence discussions it doesn’t help a lot if you make a mistake in defence, but it still will happen with all different line-ups, we will concede goals in the future. A little bit too much today, maybe one for sure too much and one goal you can concede at Leicester. We could have defended better before they could cross around the second goal, that’s the 100 per cent truth.
We like to work together with each other. We have a fantastic atmosphere at Melwood, where we work together - there are a lot of people, 100-and-something people working there, and we all really want to be successful because we like the constellation and how it is there. We like the mood, we like all the people. In modern football that’s maybe rare, I’m not sure, but we want to be successful together. That means we always feel bad together when it’s not that good. We’ve felt quite average the last few days, and today much better.