Press conferenceJürgen Klopp on West Ham 1-2 Liverpool, a 'perfect night', Curtis Jones' display and more
Jürgen Klopp felt Liverpool were fully deserving of the three points as they recorded a 2-1 victory over West Ham United on Wednesday night to go five games unbeaten in the Premier League.
Joel Matip's header off an Andy Robertson corner in the 67th minute decided the outcome of the contest at London Stadium, securing the Reds their third successive win.
Lucas Paqueta had put David Moyes' Hammers ahead early in the first half, though that opener was cancelled out by a brilliant long-range hit from Cody Gakpo.
West Ham 1-2 Liverpool: Highlights
Read on for a summary of Klopp's post-match press conference...
On getting a third win in a row and Liverpool's performance...
I liked the performance a lot, big parts of it. First half, I think we were exceptional. Controlled the game from the beginning pretty much, made one mistake and bam – 1-0 down. Great goal, I have to say – what a screamer – but [we] stayed calm, kept playing, scored our screamer as well and controlled the game. I am not 100 per cent sure, but it felt like around 80 per cent possession and that is difficult, we all know, I think the crowd was waiting for a lot of challenges and we played around that.
Second half I liked as well. We had to really dig in deep then because of the physicality of West Ham, they always have a chance to come back as long as you don't kill the game – and we didn't. [We] had massive chances after set-pieces, I have no clue how we didn't take them – I didn't understand it but then [we] scored a wonderful goal from a set-piece. They scored a goal which was offside, I didn't see it back, [and] I heard now about the handball [but] we were on the other side of that. I thought he just fell on the ball but I can understand Moyesy sees that probably completely different. In the end, if you look at the game, I think we are the deserved winner and that's, for me, very important. If we got a point, I'm still happy with the game, not with the result – [but] now I'm happy with both.
On Curtis Jones' performance and run of form...
Curtis has [had] a super-difficult season this year. It started with a freakish injury – it happens to young boys but he was on the edge of being not that young anymore to get these kind of things. So, we had to deal with him super-carefully – he was out for a long time and then we could start training again, but only a session here, then recovery again, a session there... you cannot build anything. From the moment he was allowed to train properly again, it looked – step by step – really good.
Since he was fully fit and match-ready, he plays now and he is doing really well. He set the tone again today with the first counter-pressing situation, he was super-important. That he is a good footballer, we all knew – that he has to improve, we knew as well, and he knows, but he's in a really good moment, a really good moment, [and that is] super-helpful. This team is set up now for the defending, for the defensive readiness. This is a ticket into the team. That doesn't mean the other boys don't do that, but these guys now do it like animals, if you want – and really, I like that, how we chase the ball again and these kind of things. On top of that, we are able to play quite good football and Curtis is involved in that as well, absolutely.
On what has been the biggest factor in the run of three wins...
Our defending, definitely. We defend completely different. In general, it's the defending. In general, the readiness to defend. So the biggest chance of the first half West Ham had, when Virg sorts it on the far post, it looked like a goal and we don't win the ball in a three-v-one situation at the sideline – I loved the situation anyway, I love it. Yes, we have to win the ball there but I loved that we were there and we tried. It was a genius moment or unlucky for us, they get through. But I loved the situation anyway and there we were lucky – maybe the only real time in the game or Virg did just particularly well. Apart from that, it's the defending.
On top of that, how I said, we can play football. When you have stability in a game, it means not each piece of possession the opponent has ends up in a shot or a cross or a dangerous situation in your box, then you can build – step by step – confidence during the game. That's what I saw today. It was by far the best reaction we had on a setback we had this season. We were 1-0 down and usually this season it looked like that's it pretty much. Today I couldn't see a difference body language-wise – it was all good. Yes, we need to score then but, how I said, I would have liked the game as well if we draw. But anyway if we lose, that would've been super-unfair. But if we draw, I liked the game, not so much the result. But now we won it and that makes it the perfect night for us.
On Ibrahima Konate's absence from the matchday squad...
Ibou could have played. He's not injured but, in the last two or three weeks, he always had to rest like two days, one day, then half a session, stuff like this. I thought now we have to make sure that he can recover properly, that he doesn't get injured, so that's why we left him completely at home. That's it pretty much.
On the 'race' for the top four...
I can't see the race yet, I can't. That's because we are not in the position for a race. So the only thing we can do is winning football games. If that puts pressure on other teams, that's not in our hands because we don't play them. We play Tottenham – that's it from that area, I think, of teams above us. If they win all their games, that's it for us. But I don't think about that. I want us to finish the season as good as somehow possible. I want to take something out of the season for next year. If that is European competition, great. If not, we have to accept it as well and go from there. That's what I want now.
I want us, at least for a few weeks, [to] show our real face – and not the nice one, the ugly one, the nice one, the ugly one. It's really tough to do that. So now we did it for kind of three games – three-and-a-half, the second half against Arsenal was brilliant as well – all in a different way. Tonight, the first half I liked the most for a long, long time, like the way we controlled the game. We played here plenty of times, it's always tough. Result-wise, it looked better from time to time but the goals we scored were then counter-attacks, stuff like that, quick reacting, all these kind of things. Tonight we controlled the game in a way we never did before against West Ham and I really liked that.