Jürgen Klopp on CL table, Salah's 50th goal and Fabinho
Jürgen Klopp expects Group C to be 'exciting until the end' after Liverpool assumed pole position with a 4-0 victory over Red Star Belgrade at Anfield.
The Reds claimed their second win in three Champions League outings courtesy of goals from Roberto Firmino, Mohamed Salah (two) and Sadio Mane.
With Paris Saint-Germain and Napoli playing out a 2-2 draw in the group’s other game on Wednesday night, Klopp’s men climbed to top spot as a result of their success.
But the manager cautioned against drawing conclusions from the current situation in the section as he assessed the clash with Red Star during a post-match press conference.
Klopp also reflected on Salah reaching the milestone of 50 Liverpool goals, the performance of summer signing Fabinho and more. Read on for a summary…
Watch: The 4-0 win in 90 seconds
On being top of the group…
It would not be a big surprise for you that I think we are not through yet! This group will obviously stay exciting until the end, which I thought was pretty clear immediately after the draw. You cannot do more than win your own games and then the situation changes in your favour. That happened tonight. But it doesn’t say too much about the group, to be honest.
On whether the game could be a spark for Liverpool’s front three…
It was just a good football game and they could finish the situations because we had the right movements in the right moment, we had the right passes, we had the right formation. The first two goals were after a counter-pressing situation, which is brilliant and very important. When you see how big the impact was of the boys coming on, that’s really important as well. You cannot win a game 4-0 if most of the things aren’t really good and tonight most of the things were really good.
On Red Star...
These games are usually very, very difficult. I think Red Star did a really good job but we were really good tonight, so that makes life difficult [for them]. We did the right things in the right moments; that’s how you can win football games. I didn’t expect more, I thought they would have been immediately much better if we would have let them – we didn’t. There were a lot of situations where we had to defend. The last line, Joe Gomez and Virgil van Dijk, were unbelievably strong. The double-six, I don’t know how many challenges they had. It’s not that we constantly had the ball and tried to do something, it was really hard work. That’s what I expected. That we won it was because we were really good tonight.
On where he feels Red Star will eventually finish in Group C…
I don’t know. With all respect, I’m not too much interested because we try to save our own lives in the competition and it’s difficult enough because it’s a really hard group. It’s hard for Red Star, it’s hard for us, Napoli and even for PSG. That’s the Champions League – very difficult. You have to be focused always again, 100 per cent. Last year we won 7-0 at Maribor, but at home that made it doubly difficult – in the end we won, but it was not the same game like in Maribor. They all strike back, they all come back, so I expect a very difficult game in Belgrade, to be honest, with the supporters there and all that stuff. It will be really difficult. Napoli already have the experience, but we will try again – that’s all I’m interested in, to be honest.
On Salah reaching the 50-goal mark for Liverpool in just 65 appearances…
I think he would say thanks to his teammates because it’s quite difficult to score goals without these wonderful passes and crosses. Like tonight, the first goal he scored was [from] genius little link-up play of Shaq – I don’t know how he did that! It’s good that we maybe can stop talking about that [his scoring record] – it helps a little bit. I’m not in doubt, he was not in doubt, but if you are constantly asking about it then it is like, ‘Something obviously is wrong, or people are not happy’ or whatever. You should not think about it, you should not constantly think about how can I score again? It only happens if you work hard, if you are in the right spaces, if your teammates see you in the right moments and if you make the right runs, then you can score. It is an exceptional number and hopefully he can continue.
On Salah’s celebrations…
He is completely fine. Really. If he is not celebrating, I don’t know if he is maybe a bit annoyed about getting asked about it [his scoring record]. We didn’t speak about it, to be honest. You ask him all the time and then I go to him and say, ‘How do you feel because you haven’t scored as often?’ – I am not crazy! It is all good. I saw him celebrating but I couldn’t see his face from that distance. I know he is fine – and I saw his face when I took him off! That was different!
On Fabinho’s performance…
Very good. Very, very good. The present for his birthday was not that he was in the line-up, it was that we played his favourite system with a double-six! He played really well and it was good to see. He was very aggressive and everything was there. For his first game for a while, his second [start] from the beginning, it was good, really good. It is quite impressive what people saw tonight. It always helps a player if you play a good game – it helped us tonight and helped him. That was the start, so let’s carry on.