Jurgen Klopp revealed Alexis Mac Allister‘s knee injury should be “nothing major” and had plenty of praise for Conor Bradley, as well as the academy.
Here are four key points from the manager’s post-match press conference…
What stood out?
A simple answer but hard to go wrong: “The performance,” Klopp said.
“The story of the game could have been completely different if we don’t start like this. We always try to give the game a direction, and this direction was clear from the beginning.”
It was notable how well Liverpool pressed early on, and it hardly seemed to let up for the full 90 minutes.
Reason for taking Bradley off
With two assists and a goal, Bradley was flying, but Klopp decided to bring him off in the 69th minute to a rapturous round of applause.
The manager explained: “We take them off (Bradley and Joe Gomez) because they have played now an awful lot of games, and we have Robbo and Trent on and they need rhythm.”
Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold, as mentioned, will have some job getting back into the team after injury.
Mac Allister’s knee injury “nothing major”
Alexis Mac Allister limping off was just about the only negative to take from the match, but Klopp wasn’t too worried.
The manager said: “The next game is coming in four days and I have no idea who can play again because they looked quite knackered when I had a look in the dressing room!
“Little back here, Macca on the knee – knee on knee – stuff like this. Nothing major, at least nobody told me that yet, so it’s all fine.”
The “incredible” job the academy is doing
“Since he is back, it is a joy to watch him (Bradley),” the boss commented.
“It is all credit to the academy because, how I said, Conor, Jarell (Quansah), James (McConnell), Bobby (Clark) and the others we don’t have to mention, it’s top.
“Kaide Gordon coming back after a long, long injury, even longer. Stefan Bajcetic still out, these kind of things.
“It is not cool but we were counting with Stefan before the season because we know how good he is, then he cannot play and that’s obviously not helpful. The academy is doing an incredible job.”
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