Although Liverpool FC has taken the lead again, coach Jürgen Klopp expects his team to perform better than against Sheffield United.
There are different ways to control a football game, “and the way we controlled it today wasn’t the right one because we didn’t create enough,” said the 56-year-old coach after the 3-1 win (1 :0) of his team against the bottom of the Premier League table. Thanks to the success in their own stadium, the Reds pushed Arsenal FC back from the top of the table after 24 hours.
“We saw what you have to do after 60 minutes. You have to accelerate, you have to get faster, you have to overlap, undercut – and we did that all at once,” said Klopp. Darwin Núñez (17th minute), Alexis Mac Allister (76th) and substitute Cody Gakpo (90th) scored for the Reds, but an own goal to equalize by Conor Bradley (58th) had temporarily dampened the mood in the stands gave hope to the well-playing relegation candidate Sheffield.
“He said ‘Thank you’, I said ‘Gracias'”
Klopp gave special praise to Argentine world champion Mac Allister, who made it 2-1 with a powerful shot from 17 meters. “A super important player for us, what a wonderful boy,” said Klopp, and also self-deprecatingly commented on his own – apparently poor – knowledge of Spanish: “I met his father after the game, he said “Thank you”, I said “Gracias”! That was the whole conversation. I also said “Hola” and then my Spanish was at the end.”
Klopp also found words of appreciation for striker Núñez. “We scored one of my favorite goals, the 1-0 goal, because I think a striker needs something like that from time to time,” said Klopp. Visiting goalkeeper Ivo Grbic hit the diving Núñez for Liverpool’s opening goal in such a way that the ball bounced off the attacker’s body directly into the goal.
Klopp explained that he often asks Núñez to put the opponent under pressure. “And it’s rare that you actually get close enough to have that kind of block, but he did it and then made it 1-0. That’s great.”
