Liverpool were full value for their thumping 4-0 victory against Arsenal in the Premier League on Saturday.
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Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp praised his players for producing a mix of mature and exciting performance in the 4-0 victory over Arsenal at Anfield. A header by Sadio Mane put the Reds in front in the closing stages of the first half. Klopp’s side then ran away with the match in the second period, with Diogo Jota’s strike being added to by a quickfire double from Mohamed Salah and Takumi Minamino. In the post-match press conference, Klopp was asked whether the result and performance was the perfect response to the defeat at West Ham United last time out. “So we had to show a reaction, that’s clear.” he added.
“The only problem that we had was that we were not together most of the time [during the international break]… the boys grew in the game today, which is very important in football – you cannot only play well if you start pretty much with three or four chances in five minutes – and played then good football. We were in control in the beginning but we just were not used to the way Arsenal played today. The boys did really well. We scored the 1-0 and what I didn’t like about the first half – and the first half was fine, we had a lot of good moments, we could have done better in some but there was still a lot of good moments – but I didn’t like that the best phase of Arsenal was after we scored the 1-0.
“So you can see these moments, being under pressure slightly, being relieved that we had now scored the one goal, but it’s still not right. So we had to change that and we changed and I think after half-time we had a really impressive phase and controlled the game again. It was a mix of a very mature performance and a very exciting [performance], with very, very exciting moments: very exciting goals, great counter-press, great high-press, it was really good. And then finishing the situations off and it’s an impressive result, no doubt about that.”
Klopp was then asked about his touchline disagreement with Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta in the first half. “It’s actually not a really big deal but now I told all the others [journalists] so I have to tell you as well. So the situation is that it was a completely clean situation, so nothing happened. Two players jumped in the air, nobody touched the other, at least not like a foul, and the bench of Arsenal is going for whatever and I just asked: ‘What do you want for that? What do you want?’ There is no contact really and it looks like everybody wanted a yellow card.”
“I am really sick of these situations that everybody tries to go for Sadio in these moments. He’s a physical player, obviously, but he doesn’t make harsh fouls. But you might remember last year against Real Madrid he was completely taken out of the game without doing anything by getting a yellow card. Against Atletico we had to take him off because of that and it is just not right. That’s what I said in that situation.”
Asked whether that incident fired up the crowd and improved the atmosphere in Liverpool’s favour, Klopp replied, “It was not the plan but if it helped then it’s OK. But it still will not happen all the time because you said I am very emotional on the sideline but it actually doesn’t happen very often anymore that I have any kind of arguments with anybody on the sideline. But it was, how I said, a controlled game, but not the most exciting one and maybe the crowd needed a little help so they defended from that moment on first me, and then pushed the team again, that’s absolutely fine. But it will not happen all the time.”
