After Liverpool beat Sheffield United 2-0, Jurgen Klopp was upbeat about his team but revealed some bad news on Joel Matip‘s injury.
Here are five key points from the manager’s post-match press conference…
A game of set pieces
Set pieces are something Liverpool have been consistently good at since Jurgen Klopp arrived on Merseyside, and tonight was proof of their value.
Virgil van Dijk effectively won the game with his opener, and the boss was pleased with how his team defended Sheffield United‘s long throws, too.
Klopp said: “Set pieces are always a massive help in tight games if you do that well, they were really good today.
“On the other hand side, we defended their set pieces really, really good and that’s the most important thing then, and then you have to go for the moments.
“Games are decided in moments. You don’t need 80 percent possession to win a football game, 10 percent is enough sometimes.”
ACL injury confirmed
Joel Matip wasn’t involved tonight and Klopp confirmed he “ruptured” his ACL against Fulham.
“That’s what I unfortunately expected from the first second, everything looked like that,” the boss explained.
“Very unfortunate, that’s it.”
With the defender’s contract expiring at the end of the season, we could have seen Matip on the pitch for the last time for Liverpool.
Alexis Mac Allister just had a “wound”
The Argentine picked up several bumps and bruises on Wednesday night but didn’t come off until the 59th minute. He was seen with ice on his knee and strapping.
The boss commented: “Stepped on his knee, it’s a cut. As long as the wound was open we just strapped it.
“Obviously It was painful but he could play, then we stitched it and it got a bit tighter there then he couldn’t move anymore. We’ll have to see how long it takes, hopefully not too long.”
“We have to fight”
With Europa League football and a League Cup quarter-final, Liverpool have a packed December. Klopp insisted “to get through this we have to fight through this like everybody else.
“When we get kind of a good feeling where results really help, then you don’t feel the intensity that much, that’s what’s most important about this result tonight.”
Momentum, them, is everything and Liverpool have it at the moment – the Reds have now won four of their last five matches in all competitions.
Don’t write Man City off!
With news of Man City losing filtering through to Sheffield, Klopp was asked about being ahead of them in the Premier League.
His reply was pretty emphatic, saying: “If somebody were to write City off that would be the biggest joke in the history of football, it would make no sense.”
As it stands, the Reds are four points clear of Pep Guardiola’s side, but still two behind Arsenal who are top.
Aston Villa‘s win over the champions took Unai Emery’s side two points clear of Man City, too.
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