Liverpool 4-1 Norwich City: Jürgen Klopp's reaction
Jürgen Klopp was encouraged by Liverpool's performance in beating Norwich City 4-1 to kick off the 2019-20 Premier League season.
Four first-half goals carried the Reds to three points at Anfield as Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Divock Origi struck after Grant Hanley first put through his own net.
Teemu Pukki netted for the Canaries, who tested Klopp’s side on the opening night, but the home team held firm to start the campaign in style.
Read a summary of the manager’s post-match press conference – which also included an update on the injury sustained by Alisson Becker – below…
On his rating of the performance…
Good. For a long part of the game, really good. I think the first 60 minutes were pretty impressive. If you are surprised that Norwich use little moments for being dangerous as well, I’m not – that’s how they are. That’s really good and still for 60 minutes we did what we had to do. We could have scored more, especially after half-time and that would maybe then impress the opponent a bit more. They were not really fussed about the [scoreline]; they stayed cheeky, they stayed lively, they did what they wanted to do, they changed offensively. I have to say, biggest respect for what Daniel [Farke] is doing there with the boys. [It’s] a very interesting and exciting team. That’s how they scored the goal, because we lost a little bit of concentration.
If you are under pressure you have no physical issues in a game like this but we were not really under pressure and then you lose a little bit of momentum, then we had the problem that we lost balls in the wrong moments. They had their pretty risky formation and used that, but we were not really in danger, they were just good in a lot of moments. So we had to defend a couple of times in the last moment. Passion makes a difference in these moments, that’s what you have to show and I liked a lot the work-rate we put in and the respect we showed them. There’s actually nothing bad to say about the game apart from Ali’s injury.
On the impact Origi can have this season…
We made the decisions we made [in the transfer market] for the reasons we had. I think Div did exceptionally well tonight. He made two or three decisions that were not too good and lost the ball here and there, but until then he was really brilliant. He was a proper threat all the time. That’s all good. We are early in the season and some mistakes happen that will not happen during the season. But it’s all good. If somebody would have told me before the game we would win 4-1, I would have taken it easily. If somebody would have told me we’d play the first 60 minutes like we played tonight, I’d say, ‘OK, I take it.’
It was all good; we played against an opponent who will cause a lot of teams problems with the way they play, it’s really good. I said to Daniel before the game, I liked the analysis, I had real fun because they are cheeky like hell and do what they do no matter what happens around. I had a couple of the players [at previous clubs] and I’m proud of what they are doing now. They caused us problems in some moments but I’m not surprised about that, it’s completely normal. We could have cleared everything early in the game, we didn’t, that’s how it is. Now let’s carry on.
On a potential opportunity for Adrian in goal…
He’s a very confident guy. I don’t think he wanted to sit only on the bench for the next couple of years, he made himself ready. If you are in a situation like this you want to have somebody who played in the league, who is experienced, he is 32 and a calm guy. He is good with his feet, how we saw, that is really important for us. [There are] a lot of good things. You still don’t want to have a situation where one goalie is fit, that’s how it is but we have to see.