Jürgen Klopp hails 'special' Anfield atmosphere after Burnley win
Jürgen Klopp loved the 'really special' atmosphere of a full-again Anfield as Liverpool defeated Burnley 2-0 on Saturday.
Diogo Jota’s early glancing header was added to by a clinical Sadio Mane finish in the second half as the Reds treated their stadium’s first capacity crowd since March 2020 to a victory that makes it six points from two Premier League games this season.
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Read on for a transcript of Klopp’s post-match press conference…
On the return of a full-capacity Anfield and Harvey Elliott’s performance…
Everybody was really looking forward to this football festival, to this game, and I think nobody leaves this place today with any kind of disappointment because I think all of our dreams were fulfilled today, atmosphere-wise. That was, for sure, the best 12.30pm atmosphere we had. It was pretty special, really special. How the game was as well, pretty special, because Burnley are Burnley – and Burnley cause you problems. And Burnley caused us problems. Obviously, the new idea about football, let the game flow more or whatever, I think we will talk about that quite frequently over the year, but we won the game. We played a good game, we scored two, could have scored more. Yes, needed Ali in moments as well, even when the best save he had was offside before, but it was anyway a sensational save. Harvey was part of this performance. Everybody wants to talk to me about Harvey and I understand absolutely – when an 18-year-old boy plays such a mature game I can understand why everyone was asking, but I was not surprised he played like this. That is exactly how he has trained now for six or seven weeks since we are back, since he is back from loan. Yes, it was good.
On the combination of Virgil van Dijk and Joel Matip in helping to thwart Burnley…
We are not surprised by that because they played together, they are both really good footballers and that’s how it is. I can tell you now already that because of the things that happened during the last year, we needed desperately to bring in the fourth centre-half and now we have six with Rhys and Nat Phillips. We needed that, so they will all play; the first four will definitely play altogether. We have to mix it up and we will do that because none of these guys, especially after a long injury, should now then play all the time three games a week. We need to find a way to get used to that, but for this game today there was no chance to change anything from last week because you needed to be used to each other to face this Burnley team. It’s really special, really specific and very aggressive and, as I said, with the new idea – let the game flow – it makes it not easier. It is the situation, it was a tough game, an intense game, how it always is against Burnley. We won it, it was not always like this, but sometimes as well, so let’s just keep going.
On the performances of Trent Alexander-Arnold and Kostas Tsimikas…
Both full-backs had a good game. Both spectacular, if you want, with two nice [assists] – Kostas with the cross and Trent with the little cheeky curve ball or whatever for Sadio. It was a good game. I think everybody thinks both full-backs played a good game and in this situation that means they were defensively really good as well in a really difficult game from a defensive point of view. In football, usually you have a plan, you have an idea, you want to win the ball here or there, against Burnley there is no winning the ball here or there. It is only around the centre-halves where you have to pick the ball up and we have to protect constantly like crazy. I cannot remember a high-press situation, it is just not possible, at least it was not possible today. But the full-backs were really good, which helped us to win the game.
On the impact Van Dijk’s distribution from the back has on the team’s style of play…
Of course, it is really helpful. The package of Virgil van Dijk is really helpful. I like talking about Virgil but I don’t like when we talk about last season [that it’s about] ‘Virgil van Dijk didn’t play’. Just to mention again, Joe Gomez and Joel Matip didn’t play as well which didn’t make the situation easier and people tend to forget how good they are. But of course it’s cool having Virgil back. He was for sure in moments on the edge today, not physically, not in a dangerous way, just the intensity of the game was incredible – especially for the centre-halves. You are constantly in the air, the ref whistles absolutely nothing, strikers are in your body. That was a proper test today and, honestly, I love football, I love all these challenges, all these kind of things, yes, but we came from protecting the players slightly more to letting the game all flow. There is a grey area in between which for sure we will have to adapt again during the season because just now letting the game run doesn’t sound like it makes too much sense. We still need to talk about different things. For today it was fine but it was a proper test for the centre-halves and a proper test for Virgil today. He passed it and all good.
On what changes he would like to see in terms of officiating…
I am not the Pope of football or whatever or any kind of priest who wants to tell the people what to do, really not. You might remember it, when we started to talk about the elbow in the challenge, all of a sudden all challenges in the air, we heard the whistle. It happened then that players started feeling something in the face even when nothing touched them because it helped always to do this… now there is a message, like a headline, ‘let the game flow’. It started with the penalties, ‘no soft penalties anymore’, which is absolutely fine. But we cannot forget that we have to protect the players as well and the challenges in the air… I don’t say they are all fouls, for sure not, most of the time it is a clear challenge but if you do these kind of things constantly… There are different ways to play football, obviously, that’s all fine, there were just a few harsh situations. We are early in the season and I don’t want to open already the box of Pandora, I just think we have to speak about these kind of things because the intensity of the season didn’t even start.
From next week now, the players play internationals. By the way, FIFA gave the South American teams the opportunity to play a third game. They can play the third game on Thursday night in Brazil and we can do nothing in the moment against that and we have our match on Sunday against Leeds. So, just to say the intensity is starting now. At the moment it’s like still an extended pre-season: you play a game then you have a week to prepare the next game, then you have a week to prepare the next game. After that game against Chelsea, the players play always three games a week until Easter. That’s the situation. So, that’s why we cannot make a spectacle of challenges and then on the other side say ‘they might be a little bit tired’. In all these things, the first thing we have to be concerned about is not the spectacle but is the player, that’s what I always said. For us it’s exactly the same, like it is for other teams… we will have a lot of football games but we only have them if our players are available. If they are available, then we have to make sure they don’t get hurt in situations we could avoid.