ReactionJürgen Klopp press conference: Liverpool 3-0 Brentford
Jürgen Klopp praised the response shown by his Liverpool players in their 3-0 victory over Brentford in the Premier League on Sunday afternoon.
The Reds secured an impressive three points thanks to a double from Mohamed Salah at Anfield, with a goal either side of the half-time interval for the No.11, alongside a brilliant strike from Diogo Jota.
Liverpool have now won all nine of their fixtures in L4 this season across all competitions and climbed to second in the table with the result.
Read on for a round-up of what the boss had to say post-match as he discussed the victory, bouncing back from defeat, Salah, his team's performance and more...
On getting the reaction he was looking for after defeat at Toulouse...
100 per cent. That's exactly it. Losing a game, playing not too well, makes not a lot of sense. When you think about the season [and] when you look back to other seasons there was no season where you win all your football games. If it [a loss] happens you just have to take the right things out of it and make the right conclusion. I'm really pleased that we used that opportunity, to lose against Toulouse and then reacting in the way we did today, so you'll never find out, but if we'd won at Toulouse [maybe] we'd have a fantastic performance and we struggle today completely against Brentford.
It's absolutely impossible because you have these struggling moments around set-pieces, you cannot avoid them, the wind plays a part, but how we control the moments we could control was absolutely exceptional. All the moments when we could keep the ball on the ground, when we could play football, when Darwin connected the game for us exceptionally, it was super-dangerous for them. We scored wonderful goals, to be honest, and it was a real good performance against one of the most difficult opponents you can face.
On how pleased he was with his two centre-backs...
It's not only the centre-backs who obviously played a really good game. It's super-difficult. I think the big chance Mbeumo had in the first half, the pass was already exceptional, but it was not the centre-halves there after a set-piece, probably. Trent was the one. These situations could've happened much more often because they are just that good, but generally the defending was really good.
Standout in this defending was really Darwin because it's all about [that] Brentford wants to play long balls, that's one thing, but you need to know when, and we can only influence that by one player, when you start the pressing from the centre you have to go for the goalie without getting the ball, they pass to the centre-half and you follow that, so the work-rate was insane. It was our problem today, obviously, we had a very young bench and in a set-piece game, with Harvey and then Lucho having not the set-piece specialists, let me say it like that, to bring on was a bit tricky, so it was clear that a lot of them have to play really, really long and because Brentford never changed.
They changed details, but not the general plan; 'We are 1-0 down, no problem, 2-0 down...' then you're one set-piece and [it's] game on, so we came through that period with the six set-pieces I think, six corners, I'm not sure that happened ever before, they had six corners and didn't score. It was just good, focused, work-rate, and then on top of that playing football and overcoming a little. Kostas Tsimikas, [for] example, we all could see the difference between Kosti before the assist and after the assist. That's football and that's life. It's helpful if you get positive feedback and an assist is obviously positive feedback. So, very important, and a lot of players, actually all players really, performed on a top level today and I'm really happy with that.
On Salah's two goals...
Exceptional. Just an exceptional player. He played a super game today. We all know how difficult it is against these two tall centre-backs, two players around him and all these kind of things, but how often he kept the ball for us and we could play from there - that was super-important - and then scoring two goals. We had so many good moments in the first half where we scored but it was offside and things like that. Then in that moment, the composure for the first goal is insane. There is no doubt when the ball is in that area [that] in the end you see it on the scoresheet. A pretty special player.
On how he feels about Liverpool's start to the season...
Football is strange [because] if you would have asked me three days ago just about the feeling - not about what I know about it - why should I talk about the start? The start is the start and now we have to play Brentford. It is exactly how I see it. But obviously you look at the numbers, the games, the results [and] most of the time it was OK or better. A point at Luton didn't feel great, the Tottenham game in the circumstances obviously didn't feel great, don't know the other games. It's absolutely alright, we just don't really think about it.
Today, we had to get through this game and we did. The boys responded sensationally well. Now they are all going again, then we come back and then we can train once then play [Manchester] City. OK, we won and nobody can say I will moan but how can you put a game like this at Saturday at 12.30pm? Honestly, the people making these decisions, they cannot feel football. It is just not possible. If that is the moment where the world pays the most to see a football game, nobody has to tell us.
I don't know if that's the case or not, I really don't know, but I think there could have been a moment when you let these two teams, who have altogether probably 30 international players... they all come back in the same plane by the way, the South Americans all on the same plane [will] fly back. We pick them up [from] Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, one plane and then we arrive here. It's really mad. But the start of the season is the start of the season and before the game against Man City nobody will think about the start of the season because we just have to make sure we are ready for this game. So, it's alright but not more.
On moving into second place in the Premier League table...
I didn't think about it, but I got told. It feels good but it's November. What is really important is we have the points tally similar to other teams because we obviously didn't play perfect football yet, not even close. We fight our way through, we've had good moments, less-good moments. We showed today, it's all fine, but in the end you have to keep going with all the other teams until March or April or whatever. If we are still there then we can start talking, [but] until then you fight your way through the most difficult league in the world. Be ready on Thursday, be ready on Sunday, be ready on Thursday and if the Premier League has the opportunity to do it then be ready 12.30 on Saturday, and we will do that.
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