Klopp on Spurs win, young debutants and LFC's striking options
The manner of Liverpool's 2-1 victory over Tottenham Hotspur in the EFL Cup fourth-round tie at Anfield gave several causes for great satisfaction, admitted Jürgen Klopp in the aftermath of his side's win.
The manager made 11 changes to his line-up for the contest on Tuesday night, including a senior competitive debut for Trent Alexander-Arnold and a first start for Ovie Ejaria.
It was two goals from Daniel Sturridge that ultimately did the damage, with the England forward netting one in each half; however, Vincent Janssen’s late penalty made for a tense finale on Merseyside.
Nevertheless, Liverpool held on to deservedly progress into the next stage of the tournament on a night when they could have easily breached the Spurs rearguard on a handful of other occasions.
Afterwards, Klopp addressed the media in his post-match press conference at Anfield. Read on for a transcript of the German’s thoughts…
On whether the win should have been more comfortable…
Yes, when you see our chances and see the chances of Tottenham. The penalty made it a little bit closer – that was the only really difficult situation for us. After this, with 10 or 12 minutes to go, it is like it is – it’s a game-changer. But we had the opportunities, we had the chances, we could have scored two, three or four [more] times. But we don’t live in dreamland and it’s not that you can think about closing the game at 3-0 or 4-0 early enough that everybody knows we go to the quarter-final. No, we had to do the job. We didn’t score in the moments when we could have. They scored the penalty. 2-1 is close but now it is not interesting anymore because we are in the next round.
LFCTV GO: Klopp's post-Spurs press conference
On Sturridge’s goals and performance…
That’s his talent, that’s his strength. He’s a finisher, he’s a really good striker, there’s no doubt about this. I was never in doubt about this, even when he didn’t score. That’s not in question. We don’t have to discuss the quality. Divock Origi didn’t score tonight but he played quite well. Danny Ings didn’t score when he came in but he played really well. Daniel scored wonderful goals for us, really important. In the right moments, he and other players could have scored, and then it would have been perfect. It was really good.
On the contributions of the young players…
I know them better and longer than you maybe and I’m not really impressed [and] that’s the good thing! I thought before the game it could work with them in the team. And of course, everything that would not have worked tonight is my responsibility, you can blame me – I made the line-up. Everything that was positive is absolutely for the players, because it was a difficult challenge with 11 changes. But we had the idea before the game of what we could do. One or two players, the medical department said there was a problem here and a problem there. Again, I heard the word ‘problem’ a little bit too much and thought ‘Come on, make the whole change’ and it was really good to see. It was not perfect but on a perfect day, everybody can show. You need to come back in the game when you have difficult moments, like the yellow card for Trent. He is far away from being a hard challenger or something like this, he had to stay in the game with a lot of challenges on the wing and do it smart. That’s a really good sign. Ovie did a brilliant job and worked so hard. He had cramps too, like Trent. Marko Grujic, the No.10 is not his perfect position. I always say the No.10 is not an offensive position, you run for the team and he had to run a lot. They did well, I’m happy about this and now we are in the next round.
On what the performance level said about the squad after 11 changes…
I don’t know what it says exactly, but it’s something good and that was clear. I made the line-up then I saw it on paper and thought, ‘Oh, still really good!’ so of course we’re happy about the players we have. There are a few more to come, a little bit younger than the guys who made their debuts tonight – in U23s, U18s and even U15 already. There are good boys and that’s good news for Liverpool. We can talk about it, but after tonight we should not talk about it too much because they [will go] back in the Academy, train hard and come again when there is a game when we need them. That’s how it is. We have a few of them with us every day and that’s good, it helps them. All the others are in the Academy and when they are ready, they can make the next step.
On whether Origi had cramp that forced him to be substituted…
Yes [it was cramp], unfortunately. He was in a good moment but then cramp. That’s the problem when you don’t have rhythm, which he obviously doesn’t have, things like this happen. It was quite intense. We wasted energy. A lot of moments this season, the young boys wasted energy – they felt so good in this moment that they ran and created, but then they have to score. Unfortunately we didn’t, so that means it’s only a waste of energy – a good sign, but it can cause you cramps and that’s what we had.
On Kevin Stewart’s performance…
He was good, very good. He is very important. I’ve said it a few times, he is the best challenger in the squad. An outstanding challenger – one-on-one situations, he is really ugly to play against. He is a good footballer as well. A good player and a good game.
On what he said to Origi when he came off…
It was quite positive [what I said to him]. There is no discussion about the quality of Daniel Sturridge, Divock Origi or Danny Ings, it’s only the situation and you cannot play with four strikers. If you have an idea how we can do this plus defending, then come to me and tell me! But it’s all good – [Divock has] big potential, is a good player and Belgium is obviously a lucky country with this big number of strikers.