admin
LIVERPOOL — Jurgen Klopp has revealed what he said to his Liverpool players to turn things around in a pulsating Merseyside derby on Monday night.
Everton enjoyed the better of the first period but the Reds returned renewed in the second eventually grabbing the goal their play deserved with Sadio Mane’s last-gasp 94th minute winner.
The German was pleased with how his side battled in that tense opening 45 minutes, but was even happier with how his side came out and performed in the second half.
“The first half is really important for us because everyone saw it, we can play nice football, but this first half, we couldn’t play nice football or whatever,” Klopp told the Liverpool Echo.
“It’s all about a possession game because we were not clear enough.
“Dejan (Lovren) took the ball direct, he closed his own passing options for this move and it was too easy to defend, so everything was hectic. That was the problem sometimes. We maybe played too quick in this direction.
“We need to learn, and that’s what I really loved tonight, that we did it so much better in the second half, that’s really important. You need to fight for every single ball and we did too.
“Great, intense, how a derby should be, not the best football in the world of course but you cant ignore the intensity and importance of a game like this. You have to take it like it is, second half, we took it like it should be.”
After referee Mike Dean signalled for eight minutes of stoppage time, Mane diverted the loose ball into the open goal after Daniel Sturridge’s effort rebounded off the post.
Klopp believed it was a deserved win for the away side, who now move back to within six points of Premier League leaders Chelsea.
He also admitted he had prepared his side for a difficult opening period against Everton, although he was not fully content with how it played out.
“We were a clear better team today, but does not mean we have to win,” he added.
“If we talk about deserved win or not it would have been LFC but everything can happen, but only in an open game. “Of course I was having no doubt about character. But it was the situation.
“What we want to do is, because you can’t be 100% sure, we had an idea of what Everton did. Making a wide game of it, starting the game like they finished the Arsenal game, pretty wild, intense.
“We did it in training to cope with it but it’s different when you have it on the pitch. The first touch each player has in a game is very important, you open and close your options, passing options.
“We didn’t play simple and quick enough in the first half, we had our moment when we read the situation in the end when Divock (Origi) finished from (Nathaniel) Clyne’s cross.”
That chance from Origi was Liverpool’s only real sight at goal in the first half, but Klopp revealed how he used that chance at half-time as an example of what his side were capable of.
“We showed the boys at half-time, it was two and a half minutes or something,” Klopp explained.
“Playing the ball, losing it, Adam (Lallana) lost it, counter attack, coming back, in the end Clyne is free in the box, cross, and Div could have scored. That’s the way we want to play.
“For this our positioning needed to be better in the second half, in the position ‘8’ we lost a bit of patience, we were not being an option. We looked at it at half time and it obviously worked.
“The boys are more used to it but obviously not enough, or we could have done it in the first half already. It was very important that you don’t give a chance away and we didn’t. We didn’t have a lot but we had our moments, in the second half we had more, we could have scored much earlier, Daniel (Sturridge) came hit the post and Sadio (Mane) finished the situation.” — The Daily Mail
Online Reporter