Jürgen Klopp on Plymouth win, Lucas goal and Coutinho start
Jürgen Klopp was satisfied with Liverpool's performance in claiming a hard-fought 1-0 victory against Plymouth Argyle on Wednesday night.
The Reds were made to battle for a place in the fourth round of the FA Cup, with Lucas Leiva’s first-half header at Home Park the difference between the sides in the replay.
Plymouth hit the post in the second period, while Divock Origi saw a penalty saved in the closing stages, as Klopp’s men ultimately set up an Anfield meeting with Wolverhampton Wanderers next weekend.
After the game, the manager spoke to reporters at the stadium about Liverpool’s display, Lucas’ decisive header, Philippe Coutinho’s start and more.
Read on for a summary of Klopp’s post-match press conference…
On reaching the fourth round and the difficulty of the game…
Of course, it was tough again. We did better at the start of the game than we did at Anfield. In the right moments, we had good timing for direction, so after second balls players could break behind the last line. I think we should have got a penalty after the situation with Daniel Sturridge – I thought it was pretty clear, but OK, no whistle. [For] a lot of the young players, one of the challenges they had was playing live on television against a fourth division team and everybody thinks you are three or four classes better, and then not feeling embarrassment when you lose a challenge or something like this. I really saw it in the first half, when it started happening to them. At half-time, we could fix this a little bit and were kind of back in the race and controlled the game. Then, of course, with a few long balls… they did really well. We defended the first ball not too well, the last line, we struggled a little bit with this. They had one or two chances, two or three more difficult situations. But I heard, meanwhile, the biggest chance was offside. We had more chances and the penalty, so 2-0 or 3-0 would have been completely OK and would have been, for me, the perfect result. 1-0 is also good, so I’m fine.
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On being concerned by the possibility of an upset…
I named, again, the team I could name. That’s what I always do. Only you judge it as stronger or weaker, I don’t do this. It’s all about who is available. When I have all available, then I can maybe decide about stronger or weaker. But if they are not all available, in our situation in the league is the case… we now play Saturday, then Wednesday, then Saturday, then Tuesday. If I would always let the same players play, I would be a real idiot. I don’t do it. So, that was the team for today. We will see who we can line up on Saturday.
On a first start for Coutinho since November…
[He] was good. Actually, I expected you to ask me about Lucas! I’m happy, really happy. It was very important for us. I thought 60-65 minutes was the perfect intensity for today. Good for him and good for us.
On Lucas’ first goal since 2010 and his value to the squad…
After each last training [session] before the game, we finish with old v young. Lucas is the top scorer of all – so I’m really surprised that he didn’t score for that long. But now he is back on track. [He is] a great personality, a good player, a really wonderful guy. I’m pretty sure he could be a good friend for the rest of your life, when he is not a player. You have to line [him] up and sometimes not – it’s not his hobby to accept things like this, but he’s OK. And he is really important for us.
On his excitement for the future of the club’s young players…
I saw a few really good things but they still have to learn. We are not here to celebrate each single performance of our young players – that’s what we expect, that’s why they play. And then they need to get ready to be criticised. I don’t care what you say, but it’s important that they really listen to what we have to say. I liked, for example, the reaction of Ojo tonight. Everybody, maybe, with Ojo involved they expected he would have played as one of the [starters] if he [was involved in] this game tonight as one of the young players, but I was not too happy with one or two things. That’s not to say, it’s about something you need to feel and then go again. Today, I thought he made a big difference when he came on, with his speed and there was sharpness involved. He’s a wonderful player but, without sharpness, it’s nothing. I’m happy about their potential and we will do whatever we can to let it grow but they have a big job to do, too.
On the performance of Plymouth…
Their performance was good in both legs, especially when you are a top team in League Two and have to play obviously completely differently. I thought today, there were 10 or 15 minutes where they became really stronger than what they are obviously capable of. We did that well that they really had to defend all the time. This is not the most exciting football but you have to stay patient to do it. They did really well.