Klopp: Palace comeback felt better than a 5-0 win
The manner of Liverpool's comeback victory at Crystal Palace gave Jürgen Klopp a greater feeling than an emphatic result.
Second-half strikes by Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah earned the Reds the spoils from a difficult Premier League encounter at Selhurst Park on Saturday.
Roy Hodgson’s team took the lead 13 minutes in, Luka Milivojevic converting a penalty, but the visitors steadily turned the screw and completed a turnaround in the final minutes.
With Liverpool locked in a battle for a top-four finish, and two of their rivals meeting on Sunday as Chelsea face Tottenham Hotspur, the result was of paramount importance.
“It feels much better [than a big scoreline], to be honest – 100 per cent better. It gives you more. A 5-0 is a big joy from a specific moment; the fourth goal is already ‘wow’ and then the fifth.
“This game was intense until the last second. Four minutes [added on] was really hard – right, for sure, but really hard. I’m absolutely over the moon about it.”
Watch: Liverpool's comeback at Crystal Palace
At the halfway stage of the game, circumstances appeared to be converging against Klopp’s men.
And the way his side overcame that combination of factors – the match coming just two days after his full squad reconvened from international duty, for example – delighted the manager.
“It is so difficult to come here. We get a lot of information from the national teams but you still don’t know exactly,” continued the German.
“You saw that physically we were not at our highest level. Then the pitch was difficult, it was a little bit slippy. Being 1-0 down, everything was served for a really average day.
“So coming back like this is really good. We were not at our best but these ‘dirty’ wins on an average day are really important to stay up [there]. Cool.”
Klopp’s satisfaction was significantly tempered by the sadness of Adam Lallana’s injury.
The No.20 – who has missed the majority of the season already – was forced off the pitch just minutes after coming on as a substitute, having fallen awkwardly in a challenge for the ball.
“The big, big, big disappointment and frustration, of course, is that Adam Lallana is injured again. That feels really bad for all of us,” said the boss.
“He is so important to us in the dressing room and on the pitch. Now, again, we cannot really use him.
“We will see how serious it is but in the first moment it looked bad. Hopefully we will find something and say, ‘OK, it’s not that bad’. That would be the best. But it’s not cool in the moment.”