Jürgen Klopp: We were good, but we could have been better

Goals from Ragnar Klavan, Philippe Coutinho and Divock Origi secured a comprehensive win for the Reds at the iPro Stadium to send them into Wednesday evening’s next-stage draw.

Klopp felt the manner in which his side approached the contest ultimately proved decisive, though believes there were aspects of their game that could have been improved upon.

Read on for a transcript of the manager’s post-match press conference, in which he also discussed the debuts Loris Karius and Ovie Ejaria, as well as Danny Ings’ first appearance of the season as a second-half substitute.

On whether it was a perfect performance…

We were better and deserved to win, we created chances. Could we have done better? Yes, a lot. Is it important tonight? No, because that’s what you want to have. You need to be 100 per cent professional, be really serious and take games like these like they are. They could be difficult but it wasn’t difficult because of us. The opponent was ready for each opportunity but we didn’t give them [any]. So it was good. First half, we could have been a little bit better in the last pass. Second half, we could have been better in the counter-attack. That would have changed the result a little bit but we scored the goals, so it’s not that I would say ‘I would rather score this goal than this goal’. I take them like they are, 3-0, all good.

On the players taking the game seriously…

What can I say? I said already this is a very important tournament for us. Not only for me, it’s not because I say it’s an important tournament for us. For the players, it can be a very important tournament. If it is like this, you have to show it from the first second. Why should I go and make some magic things in a meeting that they [then] think it’s an important tournament? It is and so let’s go for it.

On the current record of six wins from the last seven away games…

The pleasing thing is that I don’t feel anything – it’s not that we are surprised and think ‘OK, let’s take a week’s break and celebrate it’. We had the games, we played them, we are professionals. I’ve always thought in my life the difference between home and away should not be that big, especially when you have a good side – which is what we are – but of course it was difficult. I don’t want to underestimate it and say it’s normal. I know what the fixtures are and we have to play them again next year probably, that’s not a problem. In this moment, for us it is absolutely OK and it’s actually what we expected from us.

On the opportunity to integrate debutants…

For these guys, there was no doubt that the first time would come. Without injuries or something else, a little bit of time for adapting to different things, it would not have been so long. That was good. Ovie made his first [appearance], so that was nice. Ingsy, we gave him half an hour and that was really good. Divock, 90 minutes, was really important. But we didn’t do it to give them match time, we did it because they were rested and could go full tonight. That was more the reason - more than saying, ‘OK, come on, you can go for it [debuts]’. Ragnar was completely fresh so we had to make the decision – Dejan or Joel? It was the first game for them together [Matip and Klavan] and that was good too. A lot of things were really good, but it was not the perfect game. We wanted to do a few things and I saw a few of them, some things I didn’t see. That’s how it is but we are on a good way still and tonight was another professional performance, so all good – not more, but not less.

On Danny Ings’ appearance...

Of course [it was good to see him]. It was a difficult time [for him], I know this but, like all the others, he's on a really good way and everybody can see this, I'm pretty sure. In bigger or smaller spaces, I don't know, we will see what will happen but he's still an important player for us and all good.