Preston 0-2 Liverpool: Jürgen Klopp's reaction
Jürgen Klopp acknowledged Liverpool's overall performance was not one of their best, but felt there were a number of positives to be gleaned from the 2-0 victory over Preston North End on Wednesday night.
The Reds secured their place in the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup thanks to goals from Takumi Minamino and Divock Origi at Deepdale.
Minamino opened the scoring just past the hour mark with a close-range finish and Origi wrapped up the win with an acrobatic effort in the 84th minute.
Highlights: Preston 0-2 Liverpool
Read on for a transcript of Klopp's post-match press conference...
On Liverpool's performance and the result…
We didn't play well, that's how it is. We started quite OK, but then we lost the structure completely and that was the problem. We were too lively, too desperate to get the ball. Everybody dropped and we didn't have enough players between the lines, we didn't have [someone] always in behind the lines. That's normal, that can absolutely happen when you don't play a lot together. These boys, they train a lot together but they don't play that much [together], so that absolutely can happen. That makes it difficult, especially because Preston was not too bothered about any kind of possession, they kicked the ball long and they fought for these balls. All of a sudden, they get set-pieces, the atmosphere comes, we lose the momentum, they get the momentum. Football games are like this. I saw a lot of nice individual performances; as a team we can play better, but individually I saw a few really nice performances and that's absolutely OK. It's all about getting through to the next round, that's what we did. That it [would be] difficult with 11 changes, that was clear.
On Tyler Morton's display on his full debut…
Tyler is obviously a real talent, a real smart footballer. You can see this. His natural movements, natural positions, are really good, so he is a real football-smart boy and the technique is really good. Now we have to make sure we help him with getting a body for football – he is not too small and not too skinny, but there is still a little bit to come and we have to make him ready for all that. It was a very positive impact again tonight.
On Minamino's performance and Origi's goal…
Taki is high quality. Taki's problem is… actually, there is no problem apart from the other players in his positions are really good and thank God for us they are not injured. That's it. Taki is absolutely fine, Taki is in an outstanding moment, training-wise much better than he showed tonight but he was the most dangerous player and scores a goal, which is really important. He understands our game as well really well, so you can throw him in and he can be immediately a massive part of our football. Tonight he was, obviously. Taki was good, but we all know he can be even much better. Divock's goal was just Divock Origi; it was obviously not a striker's game because we didn't play that well and it is difficult for the strikers, but the goal he scored was quite special.
On his team selection for the remainder of the competition...
No idea. It depends really to the specific situations. I don't think we could've lined up completely different tonight. Of course Bobby was here and Diogo was here but it was not really the plan to bring them – we wanted to get through this. We have to see. I really don't make this decision two weeks or three weeks before we play the next round. We will see.
On the substitutions he made during the game...
Nat played really well; Joel is not injured. It was just clear we wanted him to play 45 minutes [so] that he can keep the rhythm – Joel needs these kind of things. It was clear as well that Nat Phillips will come on because we just have to let him out because he's in an incredible shape, is training really well – and I think we could see that. He's a top-class centre-half and that's really good to see. Conor Bradley is a real talent as well, big heart and really football smart. That then gave Neco the opportunity to push up slightly higher. For Harvey it was really not easy in the first half because we just didn't play well and for a striker it's really bad – first game and stuff like this with all the things that can happen. But then we could see when Neco played a bit higher we had all of a sudden another target there and that helped definitely.
On a chance for the youngsters to impress during the upcoming international break...
Elijah, for example, did exactly that. In the last international break he was incredible. He's been long in the club already but was not really on the radar – and now all of a sudden he is there. He deserved these three or four minutes tonight. For a young boy, it's a massive thing to play your first game for the first team and I'm really happy for him that we could give him the opportunity. So, there's always a spot for these young boys. Owen Beck obviously impressed a lot in the pre-season, like Conor did. It's good to have them. The problem is in the international break some of them are as well on tour with the national teams, so then they cannot train with us. But the others can and that's good.