Klopp on Chelsea draw, Sturridge, Salah and more
Jürgen Klopp felt Liverpool got the minimum their performance merited from Saturday's 1-1 draw with Chelsea.
The Reds were a goal down after 89 minutes of a keenly-contested Premier League clash at Stamford Bridge, courtesy of Eden Hazard’s opener midway through the first half.
However, substitute Daniel Sturridge then struck a breath-taking, long-range equaliser to ensure Klopp’s side avoided a first top-flight defeat of the season by claiming a deserved point.
Watch: Extended highlights from Stamford Bridge
Read on for a full transcript of the manager’s post-match press conference.
On whether he felt Liverpool deserved a point…
Of course, we deserved a point - we would have deserved to win, but it’s all good with the result. Both teams deserved a point, but we only had more chances. We had more chances on Wednesday. Chelsea are a super team and it is quite difficult to play them, but I thought we did it in a really impressive way, to be honest.
On Sturridge’s moment of quality…
Three days ago he had a similar situation and hit the crossbar. He is a fantastic footballer and had a full pre-season. He is the best shape since I have known him. It’s as simple as that and really cool, I am really happy for him. He works hard, he is just a good lad, when he came in the dressing room after 20 minutes or so, it was pretty loud because the boys are all happy for him. He really is in a good moment.
Match report: Sturridge's stunner secures Stamford Bridge draw>>
On Liverpool’s missed chances…
Disappointed? I am not sure; that’s how football is. A good football team - and we obviously are a good football team - creates chances. Sometimes you use them and sometimes you miss, that’s how it is. You’re always closer to scoring next time than not to have some chances anymore. In this moment, we play good football. I spoke a lot about Chelsea and how good they play - and they played good - but we defended it brilliant.
We played good football as well and coming into these situations in the box is really not simple against a quality side like Chelsea, but we still did it - it felt like six or seven times we had big chances. I am completely fine and I want us to respond, I want us to react, I want us to perform in all the games. I saw today a really good performance from my side in a difficult, difficult game after we lost on Wednesday against them. We gave them one proper chance, they used it, we didn’t use ours, that’s how life is. As long as we play like this tonight, we will win football games - and this is good.
On whether the second-half substitution of Mohamed Salah was tactical…
Changes when nobody is injured are always tactical. He was not injured. I know already that you will make a fuss of that but that’s football. It was not Mo’s best game of his career, 100 per cent, but coming in a game like this, constantly in situations like he comes in, that makes a world-class player. You fail, you miss or whatever, that happens - no problem with that, how I said. But I want him to want to be decisive, to want to score in these situations, but you could really see the first ball he missed then it was not in the right position. The ball, his foot was not exactly right and the next one he passed in the situation. Why? He could have shot and finished again, then another shot.
Things like this happen, it’s like riding a bicycle. It’s not that you wake up in the morning and you cannot finish anymore or ride a bike anymore. That’s how it is, you only need to work for these moments when it’s clicking. That’s the period he is in, no problem with that, so all good.
On whether he now has a stronger bench at his disposal…
As long as the boys stay fit, we have. We have still good boys who are not even in the squad in the moment. It’s not too nice for the boys but good times for us, hopefully it stays like this and then we are prepared for a hard fight. If not then it’s a bit more difficult, but I really liked the game today, come on. That’s how football should be. 1-0, and then one team controls the game and the other one doesn’t want to attack so that was really a big race for both, I love that. So let’s go home and recover and fly to Napoli.