Klopp on Swansea comeback: 'We were angry at half-time'
Jürgen Klopp has revealed that he walked into an 'angry' dressing room at half-time of Liverpool's 2-1 victory over Swansea City - and believes that emotion was key to his side's second-half fightback.
The Reds trailed to Leroy Fer's eighth-minute goal at the break at the Liberty Stadium, having at times been outfought by opposition who went into the game on the precipice of the Premier League relegation zone.
But the visitors produced a brilliant turnaround in the final 45 minutes, with Roberto Firmino's header and a late James Milner penalty securing the three points a spirited display deserved.
Speaking at his post-match press conference, Klopp explained that he and his players were more than just unhappy with their efforts in the opening half and were determined to make amends.
The German also reflected on a poor start to the fixture and the spirit Liverpool showed in overcoming Francesco Guidolin's men.
Read on for a full transcript...
On the start to the game...
It was bad, I would say. We were not ready for this game. Obviously, it's my responsibility that we are ready for games, today I saw we weren't. [Our] body language was not good, the build-up was absolutely too static. Swansea did well, so that's maybe the most important thing to say first, but we were really too static. It's not allowed that it's that easy to disturb our build-up. It was a little bit difficult and we tried to [replicate] it in training, we knew what they were going to do. It was pretty clear it would be similar to what they did against City so we knew where the spaces were but obviously it was a kind of misunderstanding. We didn't do well. We were never compact enough for counter-pressing situations, which makes absolutely no sense, we lost a lot of balls. That's not a big problem, it's part of football, but we were not really in the [right] situation - that was the start of the game. The start ended with the goal for Swansea and it didn't become immediately better but in the first half then it was better. We could see that when we were in the game, we let the ball roll and our movements were better, then it was difficult for Swansea. We had not the biggest chances but we had the moments so that gave us important information for the second half and the second half was better. We were still not brilliant but better. I think we deserved the win, even when I saw the last chance of Swansea, which if they score in that situation then it's our fault and they deserve the point for sure. But I think over the whole second half we were the better team, so it was deserved.
Watch Klopp's post-match press conference now on LFCTV GO
On an angry Reds dressing room...
I said to the boys, 'I am 49 and I have lost a lot of football games and unfortunately I will lose a few more, but today makes no sense'. It's not a day where we should lose a football game because we could have done so much better in the first half and we could still do better in the second half. It's not allowed that we accept a bad day - even on a bad day you have to fight against the start, if you want. You have to strike back in the game and cool down because there were already small things where you could see we had already lost patience with ourselves. [We] were moaning about the decisions when the referee was absolutely right. You need to stop this and half-time is really good for this. We were angry at half-time, but with ourselves, nobody else. So we had to show we can do better because [up to that point] nobody could see why we were here. It looked like we were there for a football game but we were there because we want to win a football game. In the second half, there was no doubt about this anymore.
On an improved second-half performance...
Often I have to accept what I see, I cannot change a lot in a game. Half-time, I can change a lot, but only when the players have open ears. They have, so that's good. It's very important that on not brilliant performance days that you are still able to win. It's very important, always, because I have two hands and I'm pretty sure I have enough fingers to count the brilliant games in this season. It was very important that we showed the reaction in the second half. I didn't think before the game that this would be the day where we would be that bad because there was no sign in training this week. But that's what we are still learning and we have enough time to think about it now until we play again. I was not happy with the start, that's true, so I feel my responsibility [for that].