ReactionJürgen Klopp press conference: 'It was a really cool afternoon for us in the end'
Jürgen Klopp saluted the never-ending desire of his Liverpool squad after Darwin Nunez's 99th-minute goal gave them a 1-0 victory at Nottingham Forest.
The Uruguayan striker marked his return from injury with the decisive moment in Saturday afternoon's Premier League clash at the City Ground.
Nunez, who stepped off the bench on the hour mark, flicked in Alexis Mac Allister's cross right at the end of second-half stoppage time to extend the Reds' lead at the top of the table to four points.
Read a summary of Klopp's post-match press conference…
On how important that winning goal could be in the season...
We will see that. It was, it is so important the goal which gives you three points. It's always super-decisive and, especially for him, super-deserved. People singing that song more often, it's the best way to calm it immediately down, but they can sing it if Darwin responds like he did today. Before that he had really good moments. I think it was him after a set-piece, if I'm right, [where it was a] sensational save of the goalie. It was his chance as well. He was really immediately in the game, in a difficult game for us obviously.
Game No.4 in 11 days is always difficult. With our squad situation, it's super-difficult. We didn't start particularly well, it was obvious, but we had no real rhythm – that was the problem a little bit. Not really fluent, these kind of things, you have to play quick against a defensive block, you have to play in the right spaces, we had too many players behind the ball – normal football things – and created anyway then a few chances, not the biggest ones. But we had a few chances which showed us how we can do it.
And then second half, the game gets more and more difficult, opponents fighting for the result, bring on Taiwo [Awoniyi who is] a real handful and a proper target player for counter-attacks, [Anthony] Elanga and [Callum] Hudson-Odoi around him, [Morgan] Gibbs-White now with the space there – that's really tricky. We defended that exceptional in the last moment with the four in the back and Caoimh [Kelleher] and Wataru [Endo] from a specific moment on. So, the game is open, that means you can win it and obviously Macca had an idea after 98 minutes. A wonderful ball, [a] really wonderful piece of football and Darwin is there and scores the goal. A really cool afternoon for us in the end.
On the situation in the build-up to the goal...
It happened exactly the same in the first half, didn't it? It was exactly the same, just the other way around, right? What would you say about that? I expected it exactly to happen like that because it happened in the first half like that. If it wouldn't have happened in the first half, I would have asked a question as well. But I would now assume that's the rule. I don't know to be 100 per cent sure because it happened twice and twice it got handled exactly the same. So, I don't really see the reason for the discussions because that's it and I don't know how many passes we had to play to arrive there and score the goal. But I understand 100 per cent the excitement and the anger and stuff like this of Nottingham, of course. They fight for everything and I understand that, but I think with the particular situation where it was twice the same then I would say that's consistent.
On whether he still takes the same satisfaction from late winning goals...
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Four games in 11 days, come on. Five in 15. It's really tough. It's tough anyway, but with our squad situation it's super-tough. How the boys fought through that is really special. That we don't come here today and just play them out of the stadium and they don't find the exit anymore and stuff like this, that was clear. The fourth game was the toughest. It was really an unbelievable effort. The boys put in a proper, proper shift. We had to fight through this and the boys did it and if it's 0-0, it's 0-0. That doesn't change the game, that doesn't change the effort, but the goal obviously changed the result, the points and these kind of things.
For us, it's super-important today and I'm really happy with that. So, now we have a few days longer until the next game. We need that to recharge and then we can train properly as well, which is helpful. The last 11 days we couldn't train at all, we just recovered and played again. That's the situation. Super-special. If you asked me 12 days ago if it was possible to win all four, I would have said no. But the boys made it happen.
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On where today's win ranks in terms of the biggest of the season...
The last one always feels the best. It's up there with all the others. We have only 63 points because we won the other games as well; I don't know exactly when that was and how, but they are all super-important. But today it was Aston Villa-like [in 2019], where we had to turn it around and Robbo [Andy Robertson] scored... I think Robbo could have scored in the first half and maybe should have, I don't know. So, we had moments in the first half as well, bit by bit they come up again. We had chances. Always, again, when we play football we are a really good football team. We didn't play often enough proper football today, too much in a rush, but can I understand that? Yes, I do. Do I like it? No. But it's true as well.
