Liverpool 3-1 Arsenal: Jürgen Klopp’s reaction

Goals from Sadio Mane and Andy Robertson turned the deficit caused by Alexandre Lacazette’s opener in the 25th minute into an advantage for the champions at halftime.

A pair of superb saves by Alisson Becker preserved the Reds’ lead after the break, before Diogo Jota came off the bench and volleyed in a decisive finish at the end of Kop on the occasion of his home debut for the club to seal all three. points.

Read on for a transcript of Klopp’s post-match press conference …

On the result and the performance of his team …

It was good. It was a really good game, I loved every second. I didn’t like the goal we conceded, but the reaction immediately afterwards, I really liked it. Against a team in top form, playing like we did tonight is something, to be honest. It doesn’t help us for Thursday nor does it help us for Sunday, but for tonight it was pretty good, I have to say. I really liked it: we were dominant, we played football, we were difficult to defend, the counter-press was excellent, the attitude was excellent and we played really good things. Arsenal did not have many, but they did have some, opportunities because they have a real quality. I think most of the moments they had were offside, very good defense, but Ali made a save anyway. Everything was fine, a very good performance.

On the appearance of Jota and the club’s first goal …

Mo played an absolutely exceptional game tonight; I wish I had scored for him. I don’t think Robbo’s goal was the reaction to the above situation. [the Lacazette goal], the acting was the reaction and it was really good. The goal we scored was a cross from the right side and the left side finished off, which is absolutely amazing. I love. Diogo came in, played his football naturally, tried to defend our way of defending. It is in the 20 percent of the information about what we do exactly; we had meetings to talk about it and all of that will take time. Today he had 60 or 70 minutes to see how Sadio is doing and then he went out onto the field and did incredibly well. He scored a super goal, a nice first game at Anfield. He will never forget it, I will never forget it. A good start.

On whether he was worried about the first few chances that weren’t being taken …

No, he wasn’t worried. That’s the situation, that’s life as a manager. I wish we had the first chance, the second too, the third and the fourth and the fifth, but it never happens! The direction of the game, I really liked; the way we played, I really liked it. We seemed pretty ruthless in these situations. We kept them about 25 meters ahead of their goal, we were there with our means. We looked really, really good, to be honest. It’s very difficult because Arsenal are defending right now with 10 men, or 11 with the goalkeeper, but every ball you lose is a potential counterattack and everyone knows how fast they are, so that makes it really difficult. It should be a proper mix between being brave, being flexible, being direct and being perfectly protected otherwise you run into one accountant after another. No i wasn’t worried [about missed chances]. Like I said, I wish it were different, but it is my life that expects goals.

On whether he saw any ‘oversights’ in the Reds’ display …

I did not see that we were careless defending. I saw us in one or two passing situations when we gave the ball too easily, which is a problem at the time because to beat Arsenal you need a fairly expansive formation. Losing the ball without any pressure on yourself doesn’t make much sense, that can really hurt you. So right now, yes, but our defense was very good, very good, because you cannot defend Arsenal for 90 minutes with the quality it has. It is completely normal that they have chances [and] you need a goalie for that, you need a lock for that, you need all these kinds of things. But in all other moments you have to be really creative because they defend well. They defend 5-4-1 until it develops and then 5-5 and that makes it really difficult. And you know, a ball on his feet and Aubameyang is on his bike and that’s really difficult.

On whether his team’s impressive start to the season is a ‘statement’ …

We don’t make statements, to be honest. In a press conference from time to time I have to do it because you ask me questions, but other than that we only play football and we want to win the games. Look, like I said, I liked the game tonight and I also said that it doesn’t help much for Thursday because we have to play like this again, or better, that’s how a season works. Tonight I’m very happy for what we did, but now we have three days and then we play again and then we have two days and we play again, so that’s pretty intense. So obviously it’s all about consistency, but when I looked at the schedule before the season, I also thought, ‘Oh that’s pretty tricky. It was always clear, for centuries, that Chelsea would be really strong, Arsenal won the FA Cup so they won the last English competition after the lockdown and they have been flying since then, practically. They beat us in the Community Shield. Leeds, I said it before the game, it belongs to all [other] 19 teams, they wouldn’t have been in the top 10 of what I want to play in the first game. It was difficult but we did it. So we have to improve, we have to be consistent. So far we have played quite well, but that’s it.