Jürgen Klopp felt Liverpool were not at their best in the 1-0 victory over Manchester City on New Year’s Eve, but were nevertheless fully deserving of the crucial three points as they signed off from 2016 in the best possible fashion.

Georginio Wijnaldum’s eighth-minute header made the difference on an intense night at Anfield, enabling the Reds to consolidate second position in the Premier League table and open up a four-point gap over Pep Guardiola’s team and remain six behind leaders Chelsea.

Afterwards, Klopp explained why he was delighted with the endeavours of his players in what was a hard-fought contest with the Blues, but felt there was room for improvement in some aspects of their play.

Read on for a full transcript of the manager’s press conference…

On whether the win was the best possible way to end 2016…

[It was] actually the best [way] I could have imagined [to end the year]. It was a difficult game, of course. City are a good side, a really good side. It was clear we needed to be very compact today because if you are not compact against City then you don’t have to play. We did well, I cannot remember a lot of chances for City, which is maybe the biggest compliment for my team. The problem we had tonight was that we were not as good as we could have been in our own possession. We created a few moments, we scored a wonderful goal, we had our counter-attacks, that’s pretty normal that you have situations like this, but then we passed too late or too early or not in the right direction. We had these few problems in the first half and then in the second half, again we defended really well but we were not as confident as we could have been in our own possession. Then we lost a few balls in absolutely the wrong moment, when we were already on our way in the direction of the City goal. We lost the ball too easily and because of that, the game was so intense for us – then we had to close the spaces with the highest intensity, the highest passion level and all that. It was really hard work tonight, but it was not that we were expecting something different. Against Man City, you have to work for three points. If you are good enough, you can get them – and we are good enough and that’s cool.

On whether the win meant more given Chelsea’s victory earlier in the day…

Actually, I don’t know if I need anything plus to be really happy when we win against Man City – actually, I know I don’t need anything else, so it’s all good and hard work. As I’ve said before, we cannot have a look at Chelsea; they obviously are unbelievably strong, of course, and they are in an outstanding run and have won 13 games in a row already - not bad, but can you imagine how annoying it is when you’ve won 13 games in a row and there’s still one team only six points behind? I am pretty sure they don’t think about this, so why should we? It is completely not important what happens in this moment apart from that we win games – that’s the only thing we are really interested in and it’s so difficult in this league, unbelievably difficult. The next game is already waiting against Sunderland. They’re fighting for the league and for their lives and probably you’ll ask me in the next press conference will I rotate or whatever. They will fight for everything, so that’s the situation. [Tonight] we got the three points and I really thought we deserved it, and that’s the only thing that’s really important.

LFCTV GO: Klopp's post-Man City press conference

On the importance of taking 11 points from a possible 15 against the other members of the top six so far this season…

I told it to the boys in the meeting when we started here, you always have to find a point where you can start and it’s important. I’m pretty sure I said in the first few meetings that we want to be the most ugly-to-play side in the league. The boys made a big, big, big improvement and wonderful development. Now we are really good in possession and these things so we didn’t have to defend like we defended last year nearly each week so often, but we still can mix it up and that’s what we need. Our defending today was really good. It was in a few parts a little bit too deep, we had in the first half a little bit of a problem and a little bit of a discussion on the sideline with Millie and Emre. We wanted to press higher and we couldn’t, our orientation was not good, we didn’t talk enough and De Bruyne was in a half-space, free and could turn and that obviously didn’t feel too good for the boys.

There is not a perfect solution, it’s about avoiding the easy pass and that’s what we did. We did much better then, in the second half, but that’s why we sat back a little bit because they didn’t feel comfortable. But it was never a problem in the game, the problem was only when we gave the ball away. It was so intense then, everything is on the stand, you know in this moment that if you play this pass and you are through in a one-on-one situation with the goalkeeper – that would be nice!

We are able to win games, that’s not news, but we already lost a few - not too many actually, but a few, and they all hurt. When you watch the games then you are interested, I saw a few guys from the staff before the game and I could see in their faces that obviously Chelsea scored, I don’t need to look, I can tell that Chelsea or United had scored. But then you expect it already before the game then you don’t have to think about it. [That’s] nothing we have to think about – we have to win our games and see where it leads us to.

On whether he thinks Liverpool will need to go on a long winning streak to catch Chelsea…

To get a new record we need to win 14! Look, you laugh, so nobody really thinks we can do it! It will be difficult enough to win at Sunderland. It’s not too long ago that we played Sunderland here, it was really hard so it will be again, I’m sure. I don’t know what we have to do - I know what we have to do to win the next game, but I don’t know what we have to do to get Chelsea or whatever. We are in the region of the table where we want to be. How I’ve said before, if you’re there in the last five, six or seven matchdays then probably you can think differently, but in the moment you only have to collect points, that’s all.