Southampton 1-2 Liverpool: Jürgen Klopp's reaction
Jürgen Klopp saluted Liverpool for an 'outstanding job' done following their 2-1 win at Southampton on Saturday.
A stunning Sadio Mane goal put the Reds ahead on the stroke of half-time at St Mary's, before Roberto Firmino's fine finish with 71 minutes on the clock appeared to have wrapped up an ultimately comfortable victory.
However, Danny Ings pulled one back late on for Southampton, the former Liverpool striker capitalising on a misjudged pass from Adrian to ensure a nervy end to proceedings.
The Reds, though, held out to secure all three points - much to the delight of Klopp.
Read on for a summary of the boss' post-match press conference...
On whether the victory is more significant and ‘bigger than it might have been’ given his side’s UEFA Super Cup exploits in midweek…
No. We played here last year I don’t know after which game and it was difficult. Southampton is a good team, they defend well, they are really just difficult to play. Good counter-attacks, good organisation, all that stuff. Last year, we were 1-0 down and won 3-1 right? That was really difficult and this afternoon it was difficult again. Nothing to do with the game in midweek: I said before the game, if we would have come here with two weeks’ preparation it would be difficult. So I liked the game a lot, to be honest. It’s not allowed to think too much about Wednesday but of course I know it, so I was really impressed with how fresh we looked, in the start especially, just how good we were.
We controlled the game, we were fluent, all that stuff and then with the long balls and set-pieces Southampton came up then. But Sadio scored a fantastic goal in pretty much the best moment at least of the first half, in the last second pretty much. That helped, of course, and in the second half we made other big steps. We really controlled the game better, did a lot of good things, and then minute 83, I saw it up on the screen, and Adrian thought ‘I played really well, so maybe I have to make the same mistake as Ali did!’ and kept the game a little bit open. So then they came up and Ingsy had a big chance. That’s normal and I think then the boys felt the tiredness, that was the moment you think, ‘Really? Now we have to go again?’ So, we kept the result, I think we deserved the three points and I’m completely fine with that.
On whether he spoke to Adrian about his error…
Yes: ‘You finally arrived, welcome!’ Ali did the same. Obviously it’s a goalie thing at Liverpool, no problem with that as long as we win the games. All good.
On Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s display…
Brilliant. It was outstanding good. It was 45 minutes on Wednesday, we can now say they helped for sure, to get the minutes, to feel the intensity, and know you are ready for the intensity. Then today we had to make changes and we did. Especially for us it’s really important that in the centre of the park we are ready for all these long runs, all these decisive things, so we changed there… it was good to have this opportunity and Ox was obviously not bad today.
On Adrian’s performance…
Adrian had a swollen ankle and we played too many balls back to him in that period. I was happy with everything he did today, all the saves, all that stuff. The other players have to then feel more the responsibility for the build-up and cannot give all the balls back to him and hope the pain-killers still help or whatever. I don’t think the goal was because of that, but a few other balls were. He is completely good with his feet. If you would have seen his ankle on Thursday after we left the plane then you would say even the pass before the [Southampton] goal was better than you would have expected! It is all fine.
On how close Adrian was to not playing…
He had a clearing session this morning at 10 o’clock and then the message flew to my iPhone and said he is fine. If the message would have been he is not then I would have had to make a decision, but until then it was all good. We were waiting for that. He said at breakfast he would be fine, but we had to test it and that’s what we did.
On adding two trophies to Liverpool’s overall haul in the last couple of months…
I have nothing to do with pretty much 99 per cent of the trophies the club have won! It took long enough to get rid of the burden of all the success in the past, so it is good we won the games. We will never forget that for sure, our supporters will never forget that. Actually, it is easy to be happy after the game and then be concentrated the next morning about the next thing. It is not that we now run constantly through the floors or whatever and celebrate and don’t put our arms down! It’s all OK. That’s why I liked it so much [today]. We are not used to winning big things and then coming to Southampton, I really loved how much respect we showed today. I said before the game that this looks like the biggest banana skin in history; everybody is waiting for it and probably all the headlines were written already. I told the boys the headline I would prefer is ‘the mentality giants were in town’ – that’s how I feel it in the moment. The boys did an outstanding job for today, all good, let’s go home, recover and start again.