The Reds came from a goal down against Newcastle United at Anfield to record their eighth consecutive victory in all competitions.
Follow Us
Jurgen Klopp feels that Liverpool’s 3-1 come-from-behind victory against Newcastle United in the Premier League on Thursday was an “absolutely deserved” win. The Reds came from a goal down at Anfield to record their eighth successive victory in all competitions. Earlier, Jonjo Shelvey had put the visitors 1-0 up before Diogo Jota and Mohamed Salah found the back of the net to establish a half-time lead for the home side. Deep into the second half, the Trent Alexander-Arnold show began. He secured all three points in the 87th minute, as he fired an unstoppable effort into the top corner from around 25 yards out.
In the post-match press conference, Klopp touched on several points, including having to work hard for the three points. Asked about Liverpool ‘putting a lot in’ to get the three points, he replied, “No problem with that, that’s the Premier League. The opponent is obviously fighting for staying in the league, put everything in, threw everything on the pitch, had a very defensive organisation, went 1-0 up – so this is the recipe for a difficult game. But we still won it – absolutely deserved and that’s it pretty much.”
Then the attention shifted to Alexander-Arnold’s stunning goal, as Klopp heaped praise on the right-back. “I thought it was the best long ball we played today! Absolutely crazy goal. His shooting technique is really different level and really cool to watch. In a situation like that, having the positivity and optimism to do it is, again, the basis for these kind of goals. So, well done,” he explained.
The manager was then asked about Fabinho, Curtis Jones and Virgil van Dijk missing the game after registering suspected positive tests for COVID-19. When asked whether the club has ‘contained it’ heading into the weekend, Klopp replied, “We hope, we hope. Yeah, the situation is difficult for us, for the whole world, that’s how it is. We pretty much woke up this morning and had three positive cases. So the process we follow now at the training ground is that before we enter the training ground, we do a lateral flow test and then go back in the car and then we wait for the result.”
“And in these moments we had three positive tests, which is obviously not too cool, and we wait obviously for confirmation because there is still the possibility of false positive. But for today we couldn’t wait for that and we had to make the decision, send the boys home. So there were three players out, two of them would have started obviously today – it was, of course, not a reason to cancel the game tonight or to even ask for it, but we will see how it now develops.
“This virus is now around us so long that it’s not really likely that it will stay at three, [but] the boys don’t have a lot of spare time to go where they could pick it. All of them are vaccinated – they had already the booster – and it still can happen, that’s just how it is. But we have a really, really good chance that the boys get through it now without proper symptoms. So far, they don’t have any symptoms – they were more surprised than us that they had it but that’s what you have to accept and that’s what we do. Hopefully they are quickly back again.”
