Lovren: We responded to Klopp's half-time words to win derby
Dejan Lovren has highlighted the impact Jürgen Klopp’s half-time teamtalk had in Liverpool’s 1-0 victory over Everton on Monday evening, insisting it enabled them to ‘show their real face’.
After an evenly-contested opening 45 minutes at Goodison Park, in which the Blues started strongly, the visitors were dominant in the second period following the interval.
That supremacy culminated in Sadio Mane’s stoppage-time winner – and Lovren feels it was fully deserved following Liverpool’s improved showing after the break.
He said: "It is about the team's defensive qualities. We have been working very hard together and just now we are in good form and we need to keep going like that.
"We missed something in the first half, but we had a good quality talk from the manager at half-time and he was asking us to play more direct football.
"If you want to win you need to be more offensive and ask for the ball. In the second half we showed our real face and deserved it."
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With Liverpool pushing for a winner, Klopp elected to introduce the fit-again Daniel Sturridge and Emre Can into the action as the game edged towards a conclusion.
It was a decision that proved beneficial, with Sturridge striking the shot that came back off the post and allowed Mane to sweep in the 94th minute goal.
"It was unlucky for him he didn't score because he has been working hard to come back," Lovren said of the returning England forward.
"In these moments you need to be calm and I think we showed our quality and especially the changes, Daniel Sturridge gave us that 'thing'."
Liverpool’s victory in the 227th Merseyside derby elevated them into second place in the Premier League table, with the Reds having now tallied 37 points from their 17 games.
Lovren added: "There are a lot of games in front of us and it will change many times, but games like this you need to win if you want to stay in the race for the title.”