Jürgen Klopp's reaction to Liverpool's emphatic Everton victory
Jürgen Klopp addressed journalists at his post-match press conference following Liverpool’s emphatic 4-0 victory over Everton at Anfield on Wednesday night. Here’s what the boss had to say…
On Liverpool’s performance and victory...
The first half, it was a derby so it was a little bit too wild for a normal football game. It’s a derby, so you have to accept it, and it’s not about a passing game or things like this. We had the moments where we passed and could have done better, but we lost a little bit of patience in our own moments. We knew about their defending style and we wanted to have a pretty offensive formation, but if you have a formation like this you can’t take the risk – you need to play the right pass and not the pass you want. We forced a few things a little bit too early. We had the movements and it was OK, but it is not allowed to use all of these movements, especially behind the line. We tried it a little bit too often and that’s what we told the boys at half-time. Of course, the two goals were in a perfect moment [before half-time]. Then second half, it changed completely with the red card and it changed completely [again] with then the next change when [John] Stones had to come off [for Everton]. That was really not easy for Everton. We are in a good moment, we played football, we created chances and we could have scored a few more. We did well, but usually after a 4-0 I don’t know how to keep my smile off my face, but today it is pretty easy to be honest [after the injury to Origi]. It is like it is, we have to take it, see what happens and in three days we have the next game – a real battle. I saw Newcastle yesterday and they played very physically, it was a little bit like a derby [against Manchester City]. They will fight for the league and we have to respect this, so we will have to see who we can bring in. The last 20 minutes, maybe 30, were not too intensive in this game today, so we will see tomorrow. It was good for us, good result, clean sheet and four goals. All the other teams in the table above us won too, so nothing has happened, but we can’t change this – we have to win as often as possible.
On Liverpool’s second-half performance against 10 men…
I think even for the crowd it was not too easy. Of course, they enjoyed the game but it was then no real fight anymore. They enjoyed the game, they had fun. Phil could try three times before it went in, Daniel had a few more and maybe they enjoyed the situation when Adam, Alberto and Phil had a little bit of fun on the sideline and then gave the ball to Lucas, who destroyed this wonderful moment [by shooting wide]! But it was not usual, I am sure. There have been a lot more intensive derbies for sure, and there will be a lot more intensive derbies. We had to stay concentrated, we had to play a little bit better, a little bit more concentrated in different moments and that’s what we did. We deserved to win, we deserved the result and so everything is OK, apart from Divock.
On whether Liverpool have found a level of consistency…
I think we’ve had the most games in Europe with a lot of injuries. You need to have a little bit of luck with injuries and today maybe we could have had little bit more luck, but we didn’t. They got a red card, but it doesn’t help us because we lost a player. Consistency is about having players ready for the next game. Think about if we had still been in the FA Cup – it would be really interesting how we’d do this. I can’t see a day when we could play – maybe in June or something! With the consistency now, we have been together longer, we have worked together. Now we are here with 54 points – that’s not too bad with still 15 to get. All the games are difficult with the specific challenge of the Europa League. Consistency comes with working together. I know in football the last thing everybody wants to do is wait for something, but it’s the only way I know – sorry! In each game we’ve had a different formation – Stoke, Dortmund, Bournemouth, today, but you always see a few parts of our style of play. We are not only a pressing and counter-pressing team, we are a possession team too and it’s a challenge to bring it all together. We will still work on it, it is not finished. We need players, so they have to do the work and hopefully we will have enough for the final few games.
On James Milner’s performance and assists for the opening two goals…
He’s a good boy to be honest and if you ask him tomorrow morning, he’ll say he can train. He is a good player. He brings spirit, he’s a nice guy. With all due respect, I could speak for one-and-a-half hours about Millie if you wanted. There are a lot of other things to see – how Adam Lallana always starts our pressing moments. Roberto Firmino, we only took him off him because he had this break with injury and needs time to play, but not too much. We have only really good players; there is no player in the squad where I think ‘why is he here?’ It is a really, really good team but the problem is a few other teams in the Premier League are not too bad too, so you can lose each game. Meanwhile, it looks like we can win a few – and that’s nice.