ReactionJürgen Klopp press conference: Brentford win, Bradley, Kelleher and more
Jürgen Klopp praised an 'exceptional game' from his Liverpool players following Saturday's 4-1 victory over Brentford in the Premier League.
The Reds earned an impressive three points at Gtech Community Stadium thanks to goals from Darwin Nunez, Alexis Mac Allister, Mohamed Salah and Cody Gakpo.
In what was an assured display from Klopp's charges, Ivan Toney netted a consolation effort for the Bees to make it 3-1 before Gakpo restored the visitors' three-goal cushion late on.
"We played an exceptional game," the boss said post-match. "[It's] by far the best game since I'm with Liverpool here at Brentford. By far.
"Dealing with all the specific situations they create and being as dominant as you can somehow be, be calm in the right moments, be direct in the right moments, use their man-marking, play against the line, all these kind of things.
"I saw a top game, honestly. Obviously the first 10 [or] 15 minutes, I don't know exactly, they had these counter-attacks and they looked really good. I liked it as well when Toney and [Neal] Maupay, they're [just] gone.
"We had to adapt our protection, obviously, in these moments. [We] did that and then that was done but the set-piece [danger] was still there. If you see the stats we committed 18 fouls, they [committed] four... that's it.
"[A] very good game in strange circumstances but we are still really happy with the result."
Read on to see the rest of what Klopp had to say during his post-match press conference...
On all five of Liverpool's forward players contributing to goals...
I'm not surprised about that, to be honest. Mo played the first game for weeks, months, I'm not sure. I think [he] could have had a hat-trick. I don't know the first one, but Lucho [Luis Diaz] kicks the ball against his right foot, or whatever, then the other Mo usually finishes that off but the goalkeeper was absolutely outstanding. They all played good. They are good players. Cody's goal was absolutely outstanding. That's all cool. We know. You can count as well the games coming up. It would be helpful if we have a bit more than one for each position. We have to see how we deal with that now. It's all fine. That's the situation. We cannot change that.
[I] cannot remember one day since I am here where it's easy [with] no problems at all or something like that. We have problems, probably we don't know exactly how big they are, but we have them. But as long as we have 11 players, we will go for it. The next one is on Wednesday... people will tell me at the weekend there is a final, 'What do you think about that?' Maybe you save that question for somebody else so I don't get angry because you cannot think about it. We have to play Luton. They deserve and they get all our attention and respect. After that we will see how we can play the next game.
On being proud of Conor Bradley's performance following the recent passing of his father...
I am. I am over the moon about him. Yes, you are right, it was pretty special. Very, very special. But he was special before the weekend. He's now again pretty special. He played an exceptional game. We had the situation again with changes. Who do we take off? Is it Robbo, who played a second game in a row after a long, long break? Or is it Conor? [We] decided in the end for Conor. Robbo can maybe manage it with his experience slightly better. Yeah, very impressive, absolutely.
On whether there was a possibility Caoimhin Kelleher could have played in one of the two games ahead of the Carabao Cup final before Alisson Becker's injury...
Ali was ill last week and is injured this week. There is absolutely no other ideas behind it. If Ali wouldn't have been ill and wouldn't have been injured now, Ali would have played. So, no.
Caoimhin had already enough games this year to have kind of rhythm. Goalkeepers are [a] different breed to other people, so it was not in my plans to play [him] in Luton or whatever. How I said, we play the game we play with all focus and all attention and don't think about other things. It might be not the smartest way. It's just the only way I know.
He was outstanding. I don't know exactly, to be honest, who is the number one [goalkeeper] in Ireland but if they have a better goalkeeper than him I have to say, 'Respect'. He's outstanding and this year we gave him more games than he had previously. It's well deserved because we need him, and we need him with rhythm and now the situation around Ali shows that it makes absolutely sense. We will see how long Ali is out, but Caoimhin is exceptional. Today he was... wow! It was an A-plus performance.
On the moment he shared post-match with Toney and what was said...
It was more like smiling at him. He's obviously quite a handful and really tricky. I used a different word! But it's really tricky to play against him. Am I right [in saying] he's a Liverpool supporter? He's not shy in saying that? Then I can admit it as well. We spoke a little bit about that and he wished me good luck with my time after. A lot of people said it, a lot of players said it, it's not necessary but it's nice. But I will find a place to watch... that was it, it was a nice conversation.
It happened with [Vitaly] Janelt as well. That's the strange thing in football. This is probably one of the nicest teams, coaching staff, everything you can face. You play against them [and] you want to knock them down every five seconds because it's just annoying. It's really like that because everything is set up to make you really look rubbish. But around that it's a really great club. I like everything about it, just not playing them! That's it.