Klopp: Working for decisive moment earned the win
Jürgen Klopp felt patience was pivotal to Liverpool rounding off 2015 with a 1-0 win against Sunderland that leaves his team with plenty to play for at the halfway stage of the season.
Chances were limited during the opening 45 minutes at the Stadium of Light, Roberto Firmino going closest for the Reds with a drive that was pushed onto the post by Vito Mannone.
But they struck in a matter of seconds after the break as Christian Benteke pounced on a fortuitous flick from Nathaniel Clyne’s forward pass to fire a decisive goal into the bottom corner.
Klopp said: “It’s better if you decide the game early and things like this but we are not in wonderland. We had to wait for the special moment and work for it, and that’s what we did.
“We took the right information from the first half to try to do better in the second half. We started with better pressing in different situations.
“It’s always the biggest challenge in a game where the first thing to do is fight for second balls, to find the right moment for creative football and in defence for pressing. That’s not too easy.
“In the first half, obviously we had a lot of possession, no real chance or opportunity for Sunderland. They had some set-plays and one counter-attack, I think, but it was a big challenge for us.
“After half-time we forced this goal and could have scored the second one and the decision would have been made, but we didn’t. So we had to stay concentrated until the end. We were and it was a deserved win.”
The result, following up the Boxing Day victory at home to Leicester City by the same scoreline, lifted Liverpool up to seventh in the Barclays Premier League table.
“We will be celebrating now from here the whole way until the plane, then we will fly home, go to bed and prepare ourselves for West Ham,” the manager continued.
“30 points feels much better than 27 – more than three points better, to be honest. You can see how close it is – the ‘best teams’ in the league after 19 games have six points more than we have, so it’s not that much but it’s a lot.
“We don’t have to think about this now. January is coming now and we will play every three days. Today, this was the squad we have at this moment – no player more. Everybody needs a little bit of luck and then we will see.”
Jordan Henderson captained the Reds against his former club and featured for an hour in midfield before being replaced by Lucas Leiva as a precautionary measure.
Asked for any news regarding the skipper’s fitness, Klopp said: “I don’t really know – it’s not perfect otherwise we wouldn’t have taken him off, but we had to. Now we have to wait. I cannot say exactly [what the injury is] at this moment.
“All the players are important but with Emre [Can] and Hendo together, it’s a good couple usually. I cannot say too much about the problems he had now, I hope it’s not too serious.
“Both are good technicians, fast, disciplined, mentality players and all these things. You really need players like this.
“But when Lucas came in today after two not so easy weeks for him – because he’s a player who loves football and if he doesn’t play life changes immediately – he was really prepared for this situation.
“Like Kolo [Toure] and [Jordon] Ibe, that’s very important. Especially Kolo, I think he had 12 touches in one-and-a-half minutes. That’s not bad!”