Manager Jurgen Klopp was understandably delighted with Liverpool’s brilliant fightback despite playing with a man less for most of the match.
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Liverpool produced one of the best comebacks in Premier League history when they overcame Newcastle United with a late Darwin Nunez double. What made the victory special was that the Reds were down to 10 men mid-way through first half following Virgil van Dijk’s sending off. They also went a goal behind through Anthony Gordon’s strike. However, Nunez, who came on as a second-half substitute, scored two goals late in the game to seal a remarkable comeback at St. James’ Park.
Manager Jurgen Klopp was understandably delighted with Liverpool’s brilliant fightback despite playing with a man less for most of the match. Speaking to the media after the Premier League contest against Newcastle United, Klopp was asked what he said to Nunez before bringing him on. “Definitely what I said to Darwin had no influence on his performance,” Klopp was quoted as saying by the club’s website during the post-match press conference.
He added: “Pep Lijnders can speak to him and that’s what he did, I just give him a hug and encourage him to go out there and fight for the team. That’s it. Darwin, we had that before, he is not happy for not starting, that’s how it is but somebody, in this early stage of the season, cannot start. We cannot have 11 players and play them all the time, so we need to find stability is the discussion… I don’t know if the public discusses it but of course players are not happy [when they do not start].”
The Liverpool manager, however, believes that games will come every three days after the upcoming international break, which could result in them having different options. “But after the international break we play every three days and nobody can play all the games so we have to make sure we have different options to go for. And we need to create a new way to play football and, of course, Darwin can be a super part of that. His key strengths are exceptional, absolutely, but we need to find stability as well. So, for him everything will be fine but it is just maybe it had to be like this – if he wouldn’t have been that angry and started the game today, he wouldn’t score two in the last six minutes or whatever, so let’s take it like that,” he explained.
Reflecting on the brilliant comeback against Newcastle, Klopp stated that he has “never had a game like this.” “For today, absolutely everything. I think in my 1,000 games as a coach or a manager I never had a game like this, that’s the truth. Not that we never turned games [around], we did that, but 10 men in an atmosphere like this against an opponent like this – it’s not that I can’t remember, I’m pretty sure it never happened because these moments are rare and super-special. But I thought the boys deserved it today because with 10 men we played better and gave Newcastle a proper game. Before that it was a bit wild with, obviously, advantages for Newcastle with the 1-0. We didn’t play calm enough, we felt under pressure when we wouldn’t have to,” he stated.
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