Liverpool 3-1 Newcastle United: Jürgen Klopp's reaction
Jürgen Klopp was pleased with Liverpool's response in the come-from-behind win over Newcastle United in the Premier League on Saturday.
The Reds recorded their fifth straight victory of the season after recovering from Jetro Willems' seventh-minute opener at Anfield.
Sadio Mane scored twice in the first half and Mohamed Salah added the third as the side's 100 per cent start to 2019-20 goes on.
Watch: Liverpool 3-1 Newcastle in 90 seconds
Liverpool will now prepare to begin the defence of their Champions League trophy with a trip to Napoli on Tuesday evening.
Read on for a summary of the manager's post-match press conference...
On how much he enjoyed his side's performance...
I started enjoying after 25 minutes around about when we arrived finally in the game. We needed that, we didn't want to have that but it's not unlikely that it can happen because it was really difficult. Newcastle did what they did, they do that really well and are always a threat for counter-attacks. It's difficult to press them because they play the ball that early, constantly in a second-ball formation but then they have the speed to go in behind, plus Joelinton is really physically strong fighting for these balls. That's how they scored the goal, we played them onside unfortunately. In all the other situations, they were clear offside, but that was the moment. Then we all know that it makes a game not easier. We needed another 15, 16 minutes to set the rhythm then because you have to play much quicker than we did in the first part of the game.
In the moment when we started doing that, immediately we had our moments, we had chances, scored two wonderful goals. Second half, learning from the game and showing the boys a couple of pictures which helps always because you can then justify the situation right – where's the space and things like this. Second half we scored only one goal, but we played really good football and I liked it a lot. There were a few moments I enjoyed, not a lot but a few and enough to be the deserved winner today.
On Roberto Firmino's impact when he came on...
It was my idea to start with Sadio in the centre and Div out on the left wing. It didn't work out really well but it worked already for us really well. But today against such a deep-defending side, it's a bit different. That's why we changed it already in the game. Unfortunately Div twisted his ankle early in the game and had to come off. We all hope that it's not that serious. That he could play on could be a sign that it's not that serious, hopefully it's like this. But of course when Bobby came on in his natural position, Sadio really flexible in that space, Mo really strong today in one-v-one situations against physical strong players. In the moment when we were more flexible on Sadio and Bobby's position and when we used Mo more often for balls into his feet and one-twos in and around the box, we were then really in charge of the game. That's obviously important. We won a lot of second balls and there were not so many counter-attacks anymore, so it was then a really good game.
How I said, wonderful goals, really. The first goal was, of course, sensational. Nice pass [from] Robbo, sensational finish Sadio. Second goal, winning the ball back, [Firmino] then passes immediately in behind, super run from Sadio and then really being there. And then the third goal, wonderful. But we had even better moments which we didn’t finish off. Nice football moments today.
On the recovery after the early Newcastle goal...
I am not too pleased about it because I think it is the job to do. We can't only perform on the best days in our life. If there is an average day, you still have to win. We have to learn from the game and that’s how it is. The challenge after international breaks is always to find a common rhythm again. Before we had that obviously, but then the boys played for different countries in different ways. Then somebody gives us one-and-a-half days to work on that, that's not too much and then you need to use the game actually to come in. Yes, we had to do that plenty of times and that's why I'm not happy or whatever. We have to. The boys did and that's good, but we needed longer. It was not 1-0 and now click, we are now here. We needed really longer and that's OK. As long as we don't concede, then there's always a chance for us to come back in the game. Of course, it helps that we know that.
On the attention paid towards to the Champions League this season and whether there will come a time to rest players in European games to save them for the Premier League...
Interesting question. Any advice on how we could do it differently? I am interested, what do we do? We don’t make the difference between competitions, we never did. It's about availability, who can, who is how and which shape – that's how we make decisions if we can. Most of the time we couldn't, to be honest. We always had to bring whoever could at least walk. We cannot go to Napoli and say we play with 60, 70, 80 per cent of what we usually do. It's a completely different game. We will not have the ball as often and as long as we had it today. They are, unfortunately, really good. I'm not sure if they played already or they will play now. We will watch them tomorrow and then we make decisions about how we can try to win against them. But that's a proper opponent. They are really good and they caused us problems already and we now have to make sure the problems will not be that big this time.
On whether he was surprised VAR didn't intervene when Joel Matip felt he was fouled in the penalty area by Jamaal Lascelles...
The fourth official told me they did it. Was I surprised that it was still not a penalty? Yes, but that doesn't help obviously in situations like this being surprised. For me, it was a clear penalty but as long as you win then it's not that issue. If we would sit here and then we had lost 1-0 and then we would speak differently about the penalty. But it's a penalty, we cannot fight like this for a ball – Joel Matip, it's a wrestling situation, he turns him in the air. In the past we didn't need VAR for these decisions, so we should not use it now. Just whistle it and shoot from the penalty spot.