Jurgen Klopp offered an update on Dominic Szoboszlai’s injury, as well as praising a couple of players in particular for their performances against Newcastle.
Here are five key points from the manager’s post-match press conference…
Mo Salah‘s in-game improvement
Salah signed off for Liverpool with two goals, a missed penalty and an assist, as his second-half performance stood out above all others.
“Nobody now should be surprised that Mo (Salah) can change a game, can improve in a game and all these kind of things because he did it just hundreds of times,” Klopp said.
“It’s just a really good example; the more goals you have, the more you are used to missing chances even when it’s a penalty.
“And the more you just understand what you have to do – keep going and, if necessary, keep improving using the situations better, and that’s what Mo did.”
Long may it continue.
‘We need his passes’
Football is a team game and the same remains true on the sidelines. Klopp offered some insight into his substitutes, explaining: “Pep (Lijnders) came to me and said ‘we need to bring Macca [on]’.
“I think it was before the 3-2 when Macca came, ‘we need his passes’. Then Macca came and passed the ball to Diogo (Jota).”
“If you have these options to bring on, that’s obviously pretty helpful.”
The manager’s substitutions have consistently been pivotal in winning Liverpool points this season, and is an area he has had to work on over the years.
A “special game” from Curtis Jones
While there were several good performances from Liverpool players, Jones was singled out for praise.
Klopp said: “Special game from Curtis, to be honest. His high press, his counter press; we all know how good a player Curtis is – technically incredibly skilled.
“He finds more and more direction in his dribbling; he gets better out of situations and his pressing, counter pressing is meanwhile – he sets the level actually, how it should look.
“He keeps every player in the game.”
The Anfield atmosphere
After rallying the crowd for the Arsenal match, Anfield responded and the crowd continued their support into the new year.
“I spoke two weeks ago and spoke about the atmosphere, tonight the atmosphere was exceptional and how we all took together these missed chances.
“It was not like ‘oh my God, what are they doing?’ I would understand that in moments. Everybody was just really on fire.”
Let’s hope the travelling support are as loud at the Emirates on Sunday!
Szoboslai “felt the hamstring”
Klopp commented on Szoboszlai’s second-half injury that saw him go straight down the tunnel in the 64th minute.
“We wanted to take him off,” Klopp said.
“That was the plan but, unfortunately, it was a minute late because in the last situation, he felt the hamstring. Now we don’t know the extent of it obviously. We have to wait.”
Not a good sign but missing the Hungarian mightn’t be as difficult to deal with as earlier in the season. The No. 8 hasn’t been firing in attack of late, but is still a key part of Liverpool’s press.
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