Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp was left waxing lyrical after a tough game against Merseyside companions Everton swung in the Reds’ favour.
It was 11v11 until the half hour mark when Ashley Young was sent for an early shower after needlessly lunging in on Luis Diaz, putting his side up against it at one of the more tougher ground to play at.
Many inside Anfield were left awestruck how it weren’t levelled up on the field after Liverpool’s Ibrahima Konate, already on a yellow card, hauled down Beto on the half-way line, escaping further punishment.
Liverpool finally turned the screw on the clash when Mohamed Salah awoke, clinically drilling a penalty into the top right corner before rounding off a quick counter attack and slotting past Jordan Pickford following adequate work by Darwin Nunez to even get into the position.
The joyous Liverpool crowd roared into the brisk Anfield atmosphere as Klopp lunged forward and fist bumped the boisterous fans as the Reds returned to winning ways.
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Overcoming a “difficult game”
Derby fixtures aren’t always the glitz and glamour as both sides have pride of the city to play for, so a free-flowing a tough game was to be expected, but Liverpool once again came out on the right side.
Jurgen Klopp highlighted this, explaining how his Liverpool side had to be up for a meeting with the magnitude of the Merseyside Derby.
“[It was a difficult game,” says Klopp
“Even before the first whistle, I didn’t know 100 per cent how we would be ready for that. When we had the finishing in the warm-up Dom told me, ‘I actually never played a derby before.’ ‘What do you mean?’ ‘Salzburg don’t have a derby, Leipzig don’t have a derby, Hungary has maybe a derby but the countries who would be a derby, we never played since I played international football.’ ‘OK, good, no problem, you give always 100 per cent so you are ready for the game.”
So you don’t know exactly how it is, and I liked what I saw, besides that we should have finished situations off better. They didn’t even become chances but there were super situations where we had four-v-one, four-v-two counter-attacks and with the quality we have, we have to play a better last pass. That didn’t happen so 0-0, red card, changed the game again. Everton were not [in] that deep a block before that but after that they were obviously [in] a really deep block. We had to get used to that, that took a little bit too long for my taste.”
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On whether Konate was lucky to escape a red
The many inside Anfield were righteously agape when Ibrahima Konate body checked Beto on the half way line and escaped a second yellow card, with Klopp taking the centre back off minutes later.
The Liverpool boss talks through the incident and whether he thinks his player should have been red carded.
”I didn’t see it back yet. I was not sure I saw it 100 per cent, I think I was somewhere else in that moment. But then when he is going down, Ibou I knew had a yellow card so I knew that could be now tricky. Then he didn’t get the second yellow and then I thought, OK, we don’t give it a chance and take him off.
”I understand, how you can imagine, the frustration of Everton and Sean [Dyche] in this moment, absolutely. Was it 0-0 still or was it 1-0? 0-0. 10 v 10. I thought we were the better side. Would we have won? I don’t know, we will never find out. But it’s not that I would have thought, OK, now we have no chance to win the game anymore. 100 per cent not. It would have been interesting. Would Everton have changed anything or not? We don’t know. Would they have been a bit more offensive or not? That’s all hypothetical obviously. 2-0 and we deserved the three points, I think there’s no doubt.”
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On the outstanding Mo Salah
Despite his performance being far from his dazzling best, Mohamed Salah still popped up with a quick fire brace to fire Liverpool to victory.
Salah, with 7 goals, is now the second top scorer in Merseyside Derby history, only behind Steven Gerrard, breaking more records after securing his side bragging rights.
"Look, what I love most about Mo is… well, maybe mostly I love the numbers!“ said Klopp enthusiastically.
"But I think that Mo Salah played for us an incredible amount of fantastic games. Today was not his best game but then [still] being that clinical with the penalty and then staying in the situation, that's probably his biggest quality, and I love that. We need someone who can bring the ball over the line, and he was that again. I couldn't respect that fact more. It's absolutely outstanding, the numbers are crazy. He will never stop, that is his nature and that's really cool for us."
