Liverpool 2-1 Aston Villa: Jürgen Klopp's post-match verdict
Jürgen Klopp revelled in Liverpool’s ‘best goal for ages emotional-wise’ after Trent Alexander-Arnold’s late winner secured a come-from-behind 2-1 victory over Aston Villa.
Alexander-Arnold’s sweetly-struck shot from just outside the area sealed all three points for the Reds at Anfield on Saturday, after Mohamed Salah had scored just before the hour to equalise Ollie Watkins’ opener, which came against the run of play in the 43rd minute.
Watch: LFC 2-1 Aston Villa in 90 seconds
Klopp’s team shook off the frustration of seeing a Roberto Firmino goal disallowed for a marginal offside call following a VAR review in first-half stoppage time, and dug deep to strengthen their push for Champions League qualification.
Read on for a transcript of Klopp’s post-match press conference…
On whether he feels Liverpool have ‘turned a corner’ in the Premier League and now have momentum for the rest of the season…
That’s what you hope for! But obviously the Arsenal game, you are right, was really, really good and today it was some of a little bit the same old story: we played well, but we make one mistake – which is not the biggest mistake in the world, but big enough to give them the opportunity to score and they do. Next minute we score the ‘equaliser’, which was a great goal: a great pass, great play [and] all these kind of things and then you get the information that it is offside and not by much. So you go in at half-time and it is a little bit like the same story again, but we decided long ago that we accepted that this is kind of a bumpy season for us but we have to strike back again and again and again – and the boys did. It took a while until we scored, but we created chances before that and then we scored a really nice goal – forced it, if you want, with Mo’s header. And then in our situation it’s a little bit like that, we had to increase the risk. We took a centre-half off, brought on Shaq and then scored this wonderful 2-1. It was the best goal for ages emotional-wise and so we are really happy about the three points.
On the debate surrounding Alexander-Arnold’s place in the England squad…
I know there is [a debate], it’s no problem. For the player, he’s not really bothered about the discussion around this: he wants to be in the squad, I think that’s clear. But I really think we don’t have to talk too much about it. He is a wonderful player, I think we all agree, Gareth [Southgate] agrees, a really wonderful player and a manager has to make a decision. We respect that, Trent respects that, and to be in the squad for England you have to play outstanding football. Trent did this very, very often in a very young age, so there is just nothing really to talk about. There will be tough decisions, not only in that position, in the summer for Gareth, just like I have to make tough decisions every day. But that’s normal in the job [and] we don’t have to talk about it. Just leave the boy playing football, what he is pretty good in, and don’t talk anymore about it because in the end it’s like a made-up story, if you want. In the first moment if somebody asks you can answer, meanwhile we make it a little bit up and we should not do that.
On whether the character Alexander-Arnold has shown this week pleases him…
Yes, absolutely. But life is like this, football is like this. He played an exceptional game at Arsenal, he played a top game this afternoon, but in Real Madrid, we don’t have to hide that he was involved in the second goal they scored, obviously. That’s how it is, that’s how football is. I don’t think Trent is in a situation where he has to prove himself constantly on this level, he just has to play good football and he has to prove himself and challenge himself and all these kind of things, but not because of the national team. Just because, as a young player you have to develop and you only make the next step if you really challenge yourself in specific moments. That is what he is doing, by the way. If he is not playing good it’s not that he is not bothered or ‘who cares?’ – no, it is the opposite. So just don’t talk anymore about it. Talk about the game, was he good, but leave the rest around aside.
On whether there was a change in mentality or tactics today compared to the previous six league games at Anfield…
That would mean in the other six games we didn’t want to shoot on target, that would be a bit strange, or not that often. To keep the other goalie not that busy, that is not the case. We decided it, and we had to decide it, we have to challenge ourselves, we have to put pressure on other teams. If you want to really reach the Champions League spots because we are not in the worse position than others, then we have to chase them properly. We have to put them under pressure – and you only can do that by winning football games. If we do that then we cannot really influence how much pressure that means for the other teams, but we can win football games. That’s what we want to do. You only can win football games if you shoot on target, we know that. For that, you have to be in the right positions, you need to have the right attitude, the right mood, the right desire, the right aggression and these kind of things. I think we really had that today because Aston Villa are really uncomfortable to play against [with] the specific way they play, the speed they have and all these kind of things. They do really well and it’s not easy. With our story now, losing the last six home games, that doesn’t make life easy and we all know that. We didn’t think a lot about it, but I cannot say 100 per cent that not one or the other of the boys had it in his mind before the game. I couldn’t see it in the game, the boys really tried everything, played a good game and deserved the three points, that’s the only thing I am [interested in].
On managing to stage a comeback…
It is no secret, it is quite a bumpy season for us with a lot of things happening and we have to fight through. In the end, if we would end up in a Champions League spot, that would be really great but it’s tricky, it’s difficult, it is really hard for us. So, no, I am not surprised anymore that things like the first half happen, but I am interested in the reaction – and I liked the reaction today, absolutely. That we didn’t turn a game around in the last few weeks at Anfield like that, yes, that’s the reason why we lost six games in a row, which should not happen but it happened, and hopefully we’ve turned it around. But we have tough opponents coming up with their own targets. We have Real Madrid, of course, but then in the league we play Leeds and I think everybody who saw them fighting today against Man City knows that it is not a walk in the park. It will be a tough one; I think they are leading in all physical stats in the league, so that means if you want to get something there you have to do a lot and that’s what we will do. For the moment, it feels great and that we turned the game around feels even better.
On going into the Real Madrid second leg on the back of a late win…
Whatever we can do, we will take. That’s clear. We need a perfect performance on Wednesday if we want to have a chance only – just for a chance. I really think the way we played and the way Real Madrid played there, it doesn’t look very promising but the good thing is we can play better. That would change the game already, but we have to. We don’t have to make it now too big already… Real Madrid doesn’t come here and think they are already through and these kind of things. It will be a tough one, but we will give it a try I can promise – and that’s the only thing we can say. This today helps, of course. When you are in a moment, when you win every game and stuff like this, you don’t feel the intensity, you feel nothing – you want to play the next game. You could play the next game the next day. Obviously, for us in the moment it is not that easy and we have to work really hard, we need to have five chances to score a goal or 10 to score a goal and these kind of things. You have to go through that, you cannot change that just because you want to – if you want it to be different, you have to work for it and we did that today against a strong opponent. A very important three points and whatever it will give us for Wednesday, we will use.
