The Reds dominated the game, creating numerous chances throughout the match, however, they were unable to make the most of them.
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Liverpool began the New Year in the best possible way by registering a convincing 4-2 win over Newcastle United. The final scoreline might make it seem like a tight contest but the reality was far from it. The Reds dominated the game, creating numerous chances throughout the match, however, they were unable to make the most of them. Things started to go their way in the second half, as the home side scored four in that period to register a much-needed win to consolidate their grip at the top of the table.
After the Premier League win, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp praised his team’s performance against Newcastle United and singled out Curtis Jones, who was also on the scoresheet. “Special game. Special game from Curtis, to be honest: his high press, his counter-press. We all know how good a player Curtis is, he is technically incredibly skilled, but he finds more and more direction in his dribbling, he gets better out of situations and his pressing and counter-pressing is meanwhile… he sets the level actually, how it should look. Really happy with that. He keeps every player in the game,” Klopp, quoted on the club’s website, said after the win.
He added: “How I said, the counter-pressing we played today was absolutely exceptional, absolutely. It was a school video, you have to show it if you want to do it. A lot of times people tell me my behaviour is not great and it’s not good for grassroots football. OK, maybe the grassroots team want to play counter-press, then watch the video of that game, that is really helpful. So many good performances, cannot actually remember really a bad one, to be honest, they were all really good. But we had to be, because in the situations when we were not at 100 per cent you could immediately see then Newcastle were there. But we made it really tricky for them tonight and it was a fully deserved three points.”
It was a brilliant attacking display by Liverpool, as they registered 34 shots and had an overwhelming 7.27 expected goals. Asked about it, Klopp replied, “I didn’t have to look at the stats because I saw it [in the game], it was really special. It was [Martin] Dubravka but it was ourselves as well. There were moments where we forced it, when the technique was not great, but then there were moments when Dubravka had a top save as well. We scored twice [where] we squared the ball and put it in the empty goal. We didn’t stop, that’s the most important thing.”
He added: “I said here a few weeks ago, I spoke about the atmosphere – tonight the atmosphere was absolutely exceptional and how we all took together these missed chances, that’s how an atmosphere is. It was not like, ‘Oh my God, what are they doing?’ And I would understand that in moments, but everybody was just really on fire: we go again, we go again, we go again. And we did, we scored four goals, which is already an outstanding number. All good.”
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