Press conferenceJürgen Klopp reaction: Comeback at Wolves, Quansah, resilience and more

The Reds fell behind to a Hwang Hee-chan strike at Molineux on Saturday, seven minutes into a first half that the hosts enjoyed much of the better of.

But Cody Gakpo kicked off another Liverpool comeback with an equaliser on 55 and Andy Robertson put Klopp’s men ahead late on, before Harvey Elliott’s strike – off Hugo Bueno – wrapped up a dramatic turnaround.

Read a summary of Klopp’s verdict on the encounter at his post-match press conference below…

On what he was thinking at half-time…

Oh, I thought in the first half a couple of times, what the… We were not ready first half obviously, but Wolves did really well on top of that. You could see it in these situations when they threw three players into the box and we were not there, the last step not there. I worked with these boys now, with some of them a few weeks, seven, eight or nine weeks, with some longer – I know when they can they are there. Today they couldn’t in a lot of moments. You saw it with Macca, saw it with other players, they didn’t have the legs today.

But I know as well after a long time if you can get through a first half with a reasonable result, like not being massively down, you can turn it. But the team needed help and thankfully we could deliver the help a little bit with a change and a change of system and these kinds of things. Obviously completely different halves. You saw pretty much the same players first half looked a bit rusty and second half the boys were… it looked much easier. Wolves played a super first half, we a really bad one. Second half we were really good, controlled the game and kept going and scored one and then not directly the second so we needed a while. But we stayed calm, I liked that a lot, it was no rush, we didn’t kick balls somewhere, we really tried to play around, break lines. So, 3-1 is a result I didn’t expect after 20 minutes and maybe not in half-time, but during the second half we deserved the result, and so that’s fine.

On how he felt Jarell Quansah coped on his first senior start…

He did well, he did really well. It was really good, a nice, wonderful experience for him. He came on always in very decisive moments, he didn’t come on to close games or whatever, we had to do something there. And today he was good, I have to say. In such a disorganised team like we were in the first half, being the one who looks kind of alright is a statement absolutely. So, really happy for him. He is obviously pretty happy in the moment as well. A good boy.

On Dominik Szoboszlai’s performance…

We have to say, he has a massive influence on our game already. He didn’t play well first half; he was there, he lost balls and stuff like this where you think, ‘Oh God.’ We lost so many balls. I think the main situations of Wolves were when we gave the ball away pretty much in the centre-circle and then they had the counter-attacks. And then had the diagonal balls to Neto, obviously we left Joey in a one-v-one situation, Neto in a really good first half. Those were the moments and that doesn’t help. But he stays in the game, that’s probably the biggest strength – so it’s not a great game but he stays in the game. Second half we played Curtis and Dom on a double-six, which is a very offensive double-six but they did really well, they did really smart both of them. And so he turned it into a really good game.

On Mohamed Salah’s influence on the game, with two assists and a big involvement in the third goal...

He is unbelievable, he is involved in everything. First half wasn’t great, obviously, but then – again – a different system and he is a key-moment player, definitely. He is always there when we need him. Like everybody, really stepped up in the second half. Really good.

On the resilience Liverpool have showed to pick up three wins from losing situations in games so far this season...

Usually you learn things like this a bit later in the season about your team. Obviously we learned pretty quick, pretty early. Yes, we are not stable yet, we are not. I think with all the changes we made now and again for this game today, how can we be stable? I don’t ask for that. I ask for trying everything, for making the next steps and stuff like this. In the first half it was obviously not the case but the second half even more so and that is super-helpful.

Of course, turning games around is helpful whenever it happens in the season. That we should not come that often in the situations is clear as well, but for today it is absolutely alright. You have to play as good as we can and for me, we just couldn’t play better in the first half for some reasons. Second half then, I have experienced it now a couple of times when you have really tough weeks, when players come back, then I hope it is not always the case but sometimes it can happen. First half, they needed a little bit to shake the legs off and we have to work on that so it doesn’t happen because [after] the next international break we play Everton. But the reaction was top-class.

On the importance of Robertson’s seniority, with Trent Alexander-Arnold and Virgil van Dijk missing today...

He is not the only senior guy we had on the pitch. Ali was there, Mo was there, Joel was there. I would say Diogo is a senior as well, we have enough of these guys so it’s all fine. But Robbo is an important player to us. If you don’t know it then have a look at the stats: he plays pretty much all the time and we don’t do that just because he’s a nice guy. It was his 200th Premier League game [for Liverpool] today, a big number. Curtis, 100th game, big number. Both players are probably pretty proud about that and then scoring in a game like this is big because it doesn’t happen a lot. A good example for the second half, the change between first and second half, was obviously Robbo would never have been in the position where he scored the goal in the first half. There was no chance. So we became more flexible and that’s very important in football.