The boss on Watford victory, 'Joe Allen football' and more
Jürgen Klopp was pleased with the professional performance that earned Liverpool a 2-0 victory over Watford on Sunday, having asked his team to play 'Joe Allen football' at Anfield.
The Welsh midfielder opened the scoring after 35 minutes of the Barclays Premier League game and the points were secured through substitute Roberto Firmino in the second half.
Read on for Klopp’s verdict on the encounter, the efforts of the young players involved and Allen.
On the performance after eight changes…
Again, good. All the changes until now were not an issue. In Swansea it was not a problem, in Swansea it was difficult for all of us. It was my first game at 12 o’clock, it was my first meeting at 10 o’clock. I’m pretty sure I was not in the best shape in the meeting so why can I expect my players would be in the best shape at 12? We have had a lot of games and a lot of them were at 8 o’clock in the evening, so it’s a big difference. We didn’t play too well, that’s the truth. But today, no problem with changes, a real professional performance. We did what was necessary. It was not brilliant or a game for the LFC museum, it was a professional performance. We were the better team and deserved to win, so I am very happy.
On the contribution of his young players…
We had to give them the opportunity and they took it. They took the chance. Ojo, everybody saw already what a wonderful player he is. Connor Randall only a few minutes. Cameron Brannagan, I told him when he came in ‘It’s not your position, sorry’. But after the game I had to say ‘Forget it, you can play this position too’. It was really good. Kevin Stewart worked so hard in a central position. We did everything, everything was better. The grass was a little bit shorter and a little bit wetter. But with this weather, after half an hour of the first half and 60 minutes in the second half, again it’s dry. It makes playing football a little bit more difficult. You saw this. [There were] one or two really good saves by Simon, but not too many problems in the game. So a deserved win on a nice, sunny afternoon – good.
On aiming for the top six in the league…
We have to play football. We play on Wednesday against Chelsea, in my opinion one of the biggest games in world football. Liverpool and Chelsea, nice clubs, let’s play. If you start resting now, you have no chance a week on Wednesday in Basel. We have to do what we have to do. For a few months we have tried to manage the intensity, that’s what we have done the whole time. We will do it like this for the next 10 days – we play Chelsea, West Brom and Sevilla.
On the importance of having Joe Allen in the squad…
In the meeting today I said it would be cool if we could play ‘Joe Allen football’ – brilliant technique, hard-working, very lively, very energetic. He is a great player. In good teams with more good players than you need, you have situations like this [rotation]. But he takes the situation brilliantly, he is a wonderful boy and professional football player. That’s really good. Today without Joe would have been completely different. So I’m completely fine with him.
On the team’s recent strong form at Anfield…
It’s how it is when you are at home, really strong and don’t give points away. I want to be, in the future, really consistent in all the games. For this we need a little bit of time. When I came here, we had a little problem at home, it was not too easy to win. We know Anfield is a special place. Today it was a little bit warm and not the highest intensity for another brilliant performance from the team or crowd. It was easy to enjoy like a Sunday afternoon tea or something. For the boys it was hard work, all the rest could enjoy it and prepare for the next outstanding night on Wednesday.