Press conferenceLiverpool 4-1 Shrewsbury Town: Jürgen Klopp's reaction
Jürgen Klopp declared himself happy with the result and level of performance in Liverpool’s 4-1 victory over Shrewsbury Town in the Emirates FA Cup on Sunday afternoon.
The Reds went 1-0 down after 27 minutes in the third-round tie at Anfield courtesy of Daniel Udoh's finish, but responded with goals from Fabinho (two), Kaide Gordon and Roberto Firmino.
The win sets up a home encounter with Championship side Cardiff City next month in round four of the competition.
Read on for a transcript of Klopp's post-match press conference…
Highlights: Liverpool 4-1 Shrewsbury Town
On how 'difficult' a week it has been...
Very, very difficult for different reasons. So, this was the team we could line up today and the boys did really well in a difficult game, which became even more difficult when we conceded for 1-0. But the boys reacted well, put in a really proper shift, and it's so difficult because setting up a team, starting training again on Friday and then involving all these young kids. They are all really good footballers, there's no doubt about that, we are not in doubt about that, so that's all good. But it makes it really tricky, especially when you have to play and break down a low block, which Shrewsbury, rightly so, did today.
So, I am just happy about the result, happy about that we went through and about a lot of things – that Taki trained only twice now after his injury, actually rather still part of the rehab the game today than a real game. Then Bobby came back only yesterday for training and played now in the game and scored as well. So many things could have went the wrong way today and in the end we made it all fine.
On whether Liverpool had to 'do a headcount' for the game to see who was available...
Not today, in the last few days of course. The situation is just like this: we had, how we thought last week, a proper outbreak and it showed up that we had a lot of false positives, actually. But still the rules are like they are and so all these players who are false positive couldn't play today or we decided not to play them for whatever. People would have decided if we would have played them, I don't know exactly, but we had to make that decision. So the only real positive case from the team extra was Trent Alexander-Arnold and all the rest were false positives. So it was a really, really tough week because the boys anyway couldn't train, because we had to close the training ground, because until you realise that it's false positive it takes two extra testing rounds, so it's really difficult. And then how I said, this was the team we could line up today and the boys did really well. I'm happy about that.
On the displays of Gordon and Conor Bradley on the right-hand side...
I am delighted, even when I know they both can do so much better because they are real talents. I'm really happy about that and I'm happy about a lot of things. Conor can play how good he could be and can be in the future. And Kaide obviously finishing-wise he's an adult, his finishing is really exceptional, but all the rest he is still a kid. So playing the position the way he plays, there is so much to improve. But I am really happy for them. How they contributed today, the first goal was obviously their goal together with Elijah, who should be happy as well today, especially when we moved him to the left wing, all of a sudden he felt like free to go there, which is fine. So many really nice little stories today, so good.
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On Gordon's 'calm' finish in the first half...
That's Kaide, that's Kaide. That he is in these situations really calm, I will not say that for the rest of his career in these situations he will always score, but I'm pretty sure more often than not because that's just him. When a cross comes in from the left side, it will find him in the box, he's there with the head – good there as well. He has a nose for that, that's really helpful. People told me he is the second-youngest goalscorer for Liverpool, which is absolutely exceptional – especially, I think, when the other one was Michael Owen. But there's still a way to go, no problem. Kaide has time, we give him the time, he will have his minutes here and there and if he is working as hard as he did so far... because not to forget he came back from COVID as well, so I think he had now two or three proper sessions, that's it. So it's really not easy then to show up in a game like this, but he did, so all credit to him.
On Takumi Minamino's recent injury and how 'crucial' the coming weeks could be for him with Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane away at AFCON...
Taki was injured, so that's all. Nothing serious but serious enough that he couldn't play, so that's how it is. It's not the longest rehab in his life hopefully – or maybe it was the longest rehab hopefully then. But he is back and very important for us, very, very important – especially when we have a lot of games coming up and, how we all know, that two of our main guys up front are not here. It's good. I liked Taki a lot when he came on. He's actually in a really good shape but, of course, the injury interrupted it slightly, that's how it is. But now he's back, it's good and we need him desperately.
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