West Ham 1-3 Liverpool: Jürgen Klopp's reaction
Jürgen Klopp reflected on an 'absolutely great' afternoon as Liverpool made it back-to-back Premier League wins by beating West Ham United 3-1 on Sunday.
The Reds repeated their victory over Tottenham Hotspur in the capital in midweek as Mohamed Salah’s two sublime finishes in the second half established a lead.
Georginio Wijnaldum increased the visitors’ advantage, meaning Craig Dawson’s late effort was only a consolation for the Hammers at London Stadium.
Post-match, Klopp assessed the performance of his team, the quality of Salah – who reached the 20-goal mark for the fourth season in a row – and more.
Read a summary of his press conference below…
On whether it’s timing from the manager or the players when Curtis Jones’ first contribution and Xherdan Shaqiri’s last both lead to a goal…
The players of course, [Jones] coming on and making this run. Actually the last words I told him, ‘Please be cheeky, be cheeky and try something, be active and these kind of things.’ I didn’t think that he starts with that with the first touch! But it was good. And Shaq’s last ball was an incredible ball. With Shaq, he played really good and he maybe could have played 90 minutes but that’s the problem in the moment, that you just don’t know. He didn’t play plenty of games and had before that slight injury problems. My mood is constantly concerned about injuries – constantly concerned about injuries – and we try to save everybody, like it was with Millie as well. But as far as I know in the moment, today nothing happened injury-wise. Played a good game and got three points, which was absolutely great.
On the latest news regarding Joel Matip’s injury and transfer speculation…
With Joel we don’t have the final diagnosis, specialists must have a look and stuff like this until we know exactly. And transfer things we don’t say anything, so nothing to say about [it] until something is done, if something will be done.
On the conversation he had with James Milner after he was substituted…
No, he was not unhappy. My English was a little bit the situation. So the thing is, in half-time we changed the formation, offensive formation, so the set-up. Millie was now slightly deeper, like a double six together with Gini, Thiago slightly higher. We told Millie, because he had this hamstring [that] stiffened up slightly, so we told him, ‘Be controlled, more passing than running with the ball’ and stuff like this. But it was clear we will take him off, we just waited until Curtis had a proper warm-up. And then I saw the last long, long sprint Millie had and I thought, ‘Oh, we missed the point, we missed the moment’ and I was really, really worried. Then he came off and said, ‘You told me I had to play deeper, now I run less and now you take me off.’ Then he left and came back and said, ‘Yeah, by the way, good point, good decision!’ All fine.
On Salah scoring for the first time in the league since December…
And actually he scored a goal against Tottenham; it didn’t count, I know that, but it was a brilliant goal. He had nothing to do with it because it didn’t count, it was handball in the build-up, but the goal was brilliant – and even that, for sure, was a good sign for him that a couple of things are clicking again. Tonight he played a super game. He was really in the game, he was really involved, he was flexible and all these kind of things. He kept the ball, passing was good, in the end with the controlling of the game he was really good. The first goal is just a super smart goal. I didn’t see it back, but from my perspective I think Fabianski couldn’t see the ball really because the box was full and he chipped it into the far corner. The second goal, what a counter-attack – two passes until Mo got the ball. The last pass was obviously spectacular from Shaq, the first touch from Mo outstanding, outstanding, world-class and then nice finish. Top game, top goals.
On Salah becoming the first player since Ian Rush to score 20 goals or more for four consecutive seasons for Liverpool…
I’m not surprised. I work on a daily basis together with him and he will never stop having a massive desire for scoring goals. For sure not. He is a world-class player, there is no doubt about that. How I said in the last few weeks when we didn’t score that many, the only thing you can do is try and try and try again. You have to make good decisions, or better decisions. Tonight he didn’t force it. As I said, the first goal was a proper smart goal and in the last few weeks he probably would have tried to shoot through the legs or whatever, but this [tonight] was really keeping the overview and chipping the ball into the far corner. Top-class goal.
On Nathaniel Phillips’ performance…
Outstanding game, everybody saw it – super professional, super calm, incredibly strong in the air, good challenges, good football. Yes, I know [he] played now a few games. I think [Michail] Antonio tried to be on his side more for the counter-attack and these kind of things, but he defended it incredibly well – together with Hendo, I have to say, but the full-backs as well. We were really compact in the last line and that was absolutely helpful. He played a top game.